Daniel's TV Blog

I really wasn't expecting it to be so emotional for me. I was close to tears many times. The only thing that really brings me to tears are talking or personified dog movies. It was really great and something everyone should watch. It was the full story of LGBT rights, from the early movements, through the AIDS crisis, and onto marriage equality.

So first off, I was 3/8th into it before I realized these were real characters, not fictional characters. Many have actual wikipedia pages. Having this as the real story made it so much better.

I also loved the full aspect of it. Not just about the gay white male, but When We Rise exposed the internalized racism within the gay community that sadly still persists. I love how the original big divide between the gays and lesbian was slowly closed up as we came together as one community. There is strength in that unity, which is why we need to stay unified with our trans family to continue that fight.

I've known the story of Harvey Milk forever. I had either forgotten or never known how quickly it happened after the defeat of the Briggs Initiative. It was only 20 days. At least we had a full year and a half after Obergefell until the backlash of Trump's election. Hopefully that is all the backlash we will see.

One thing I felt connected to was Cleve Jones' conversation with the Clinton official. How they are so afraid that everything will be taken away that they are paralyzed to do anything or ask for anything. I knew people like that in the 90s. After small and incremental progress in the first decade of the century, the slap in the face of Prop 8 still stings to this day. But it woke up a generation just like Trump's election woke up another.

Our fight continues. But there's not as many people being bashed in the streets as there were 40 years ago. And we aren't all about to die of the plague. The acting was great. The huge cast was great. The whole thing was great.