The four-part series chronicles landmark events and leaders in LGBTQ history, and consists of a mixture of archival footage and scripted reenactments.
Equal stars several actors including Samira Wiley, Jamie Clayton, and Anthony Rapp.
This is widely discussed among gay men at the time due to its conclusion of high numbers having had a homosexual experience.
In the 1950s, gay people were prohibited from working for the US government because of Executive Order 10450; this loss of employment became known as the Lavender scare.
The Council on Religion and the Homosexual was set up in the 1960s to win religious support for the civil rights of gay people; Evander Smith and Herb Donaldson (lawyer) were its leaders.
This episode focuses on the 20th-century transgender movement, including the 1966 Compton Cafeteria riots in Tenderloin, San Francisco.
In the early 20th century, trans man Jack Starr lives a rough, wild life working as a bootlegger and bartender.
Christine Jorgensen's very public transition is recounted, with real footage of her from the 1950s after she underwent a sex reassignment operation in Scandinavia.
Trans women, after frequent police harassment, fight back in the Compton's Cafeteria riot.
Billy Porter says that the Genovese crime family opened up the Stonewall Inn; in the 1960s, it was illegal to serve liquor to gay and trans people in public bars in New York City.
Gay activists in 1969 sought end of police arrests for same-sex public displays of affection (PDA).
[1] On August 25, 2020, the casting of Samira Wiley, Cheyenne Jackson, Anthony Rapp, Sara Gilbert, Alexandra Grey, Shannon Purser, Heather Matarazzo, Jamie Clayton, Isis King, and Gale Harold was announced.
[11] Inkoo Kang wrote for The Hollywood Reporter, "In celebrating a movement whose foremothers and forefathers’ names have yet to enter the common lexicon, Equal is a valuable if glossy resource.