He mmerized on The Wire and Boardwalk Empire, but his gay character on TV as HIV-posive veteran Ken Jon on When We Rise was smooth sailg for the actor and activist.
Contents:
- THE 15 MOST GROUNDBREAKG GAY ROL ON TELEVISN
- LBGTQ TV: A HISTORY OF GAY CHARACTERS, OM STONEWALL TO ‘BATWOMAN’
THE 15 MOST GROUNDBREAKG GAY ROL ON TELEVISN
* gay characters boardwalk empire *
Omar was also gay. ”Christian, who died 2015, ran a welg church, open to everyone — blacks, wh, straights, gays, bisexuals, trans people, sex workers, addicts, the homels, and people livg wh HIV were all clud. He hid his homosexualy while dog all of that, and then to have all that taken om him.
That’s four battl that he’s fought face to face: civil rights, gay rights, HIV, the good old Amerin ary.
”Jon was one of many gay and bi men (as well as transgenr and cisgenr women of lor) who were told they had mere days or weeks to live thanks to the AIDS plitns ravagg their bodi. ”Like many men his suatn, Jon had nursed a partner as he passed away, then was evicted om their home by homophobic and distant relativ. Fah and antiretrovirals are a potent he knows, for many people wh HIV — pecially the gay on — “ is the church that is unsafe.
LBGTQ TV: A HISTORY OF GAY CHARACTERS, OM STONEWALL TO ‘BATWOMAN’
This is such a ccial discsn right now bee some people thk that God hat gay people. ”Back Hollywood, Williams has played memorable rol om Boardwalk Empire’s Albert “Chalky” Whe to Leonard Pe — another gay, Black Vietnam vet — on Sundance’s Hap and Leonard. Once, years ago, when asked if he had any ncerns about playg a gay character, the actor said no, he didn’t, but, “man, I got a problem wh not eatg.
They were two gay men that I loved to ath. In an dtry where Ain-Amerins are jt begng to get mastream regnn (and are still subjected to lorism stg), Williams has rved out a niche that few character actors have been able to too, cut his own path as a black man a gay culture that stggl wh racism even today. When he first h San Francsi, tradnal gay tablishments were sometim hostile to people of lor, even as AIDS began to ravage both the black and gay Wh wh Phylicia Rashad When We Rise“It was very very plited, ” Jon rells.
I thk the one that is most important the begng of this epimic, seemed as if the gay whe men and the tablishment wanted to tablish their own sandbox. And one of our misunrstandgs the begng was, if there were eight to 10 people at the cisn-makg table, our thkg was sce they’re all gay whe men, two or three are gonna have to give up their seat for diversy.