A new Brish TV drama looks at the liv of gay men London at the very start of the AIDS crisis — back when no one wanted to stop the party, and no one thought the vis uld touch them.
Contents:
- 'IT'S A S' BRGS A LOST GENERATN OF GAY MEN TO LIFE
- IS BEG GAY A S?
- IT’S A S CREATOR RSELL T DAVI: “CAST GAY AS GAY”
- IS IT A S TO BE GAY?
'IT'S A S' BRGS A LOST GENERATN OF GAY MEN TO LIFE
* it's a sin gay *
Overnight, s creator, Rsell T Davi, beme his untry’s most famo gay wrer. ” The sndalized ranged om nservativ who thought glamorized gay sex ( did) to gay activists outraged by s stereotyp: promiscuo, dg-takg young men scg unrage boys — and havg the time of their liv. It started the 19th year of the AIDS epimic, but never mentned AIDS bee Davi didn’t want gay liv to “be fed by disease, ” he said.
It follows the liv of four gay men their 20s — and a ccial girliend — who arrive London at the begng of the ’80s, jt as Davi did, jt as mors of a myster new plague began to perlate across the Atlantic.
”AIDS is the ccible livg si every gay wrer old enough to remember . He was outdoors June 1983, walkg the blazg sun, when he spotted this headle Him Monthly magaze: “AIDS Gay Death-Plot Panic” — the words superimposed on an erotic drawg of naked men boilg to ath a tt tube. Like s English anctor, provid lns of young lbians and gays wh their first notns about how they might bee fortable wh, or even celebrate their Blackall/HBO MaxIn Bra, one teenage viewer of the origal show was Olly Alexanr.
IS BEG GAY A S?
The acclaimed HBO Max seri, featurg a largely LGBTQ st, tells the story of a group of gay men and their iends London the early 1980s at the begng of the HIV/AIDS crisis, shg a light on a dark chapter that's been fadg om memory. * it's a sin gay *
1 and 3, rpectively, Bra) and he was a proud and out gay man. When his band Years & Years performed at the Glastonbury ftival 2019, Alexanr gave an impassned four-mute speech about gay rights that went viral. Rs Fergon/HBO Max“And the only reason I’m able to stand up here and talk about my gay self is bee of all the people who me before who fought for the rights of lbian, gay and transgenr people, ” he clared.
“What’s lovely about him is that he’s got a proper gay nscience, ” Davi told me. ”The admiratn is mutual: “He’s our hero, ” Alexanr said of other element of “It’s a S” that is pletely tobgraphil is the character Jill Baxter, the larger-than-life girliend every succsful gay gang requir. His stg director suggted givg Neil Patrick Harris the role of a Henry Coltrane, a gay tailor on Savile Row who’s a 30-year relatnship wh a Portugue steward om Iberia airl.
IT’S A S CREATOR RSELL T DAVI: “CAST GAY AS GAY”
Is beg gay a s? Is a s to be gay? Is sful to have same-sex-attractns? * it's a sin gay *
Even as mors of a "gay ncer" or "gay plague" blow to London om New York, the dancg ntu... I secretly bought as a ltle stunt, secretly buyg his gay magaze, all kd of ashamed and exced all at once, like you do, " Davi said. Wh It's a S, Davi ptur the tragic irony of an era where gay men were jt startg to enjoy some amount of eedom after hard-fought battl for liberatn, only to be ravaged by an unseen viral predator.
HIV/AIDS is far om jt a gay man's disease, but as s first victims — predomantly gay men — started fillg up ICUs and mu, a backlash agast them ensued. Olly Alexanr, who's 30, has been open about beg a victim of anti-gay bullyg growg up, says his school experience was fely fluenced by that backlash. "You know, now that I'm lookg back, I realize what a huge impact that had on me as I was g to terms wh my own sexualy and the word gay and AIDS were ed as jok the playground.
IS IT A S TO BE GAY?
The Bible vers aren't about nmng homosexuals, gays, lbians, or transgenr people. Rather, read God's lovg warng and grace for those who have strayed om His will for sex * it's a sin gay *
Though Rchie might be the fierct nialist the seri, 's clear that at least at the outset, most of It's a S's gay characters n't be bothered to stop the party. Sensg the impendg wave of fectns, olr gay men try, to no avail, to warn their younger unterparts, but their advisory posters are rejected om gay bars and their worri are shunned as simply attempts to prive a younger generatn of their newfound sexual eedom.
The only sympathetic ear the olr gay men seem to fd is that of the character Jill, played by Lydia Wt.
Jill is a straight woman livg the Pk Palace wh her gay iends, and though we don't learn much about her personal story, she do a lot of the show's emotnal labor — whether 's phonebankg, prott anizg or holdg the hands of the abandoned and dyg — and she do all wh ltle regnn. I thk I wouldn't be dog my job if I wrote gay men as sats all the time and you see great prsure beg put on her, " he says. [It's a S] is cril of the load gay men put upon her.
Rsell T Davi ss down wh Nick Leve to discs his new seri rooted the 80s Aids crisis, LGBTQ reprentatn on screen and straight actors playg gay characters * it's a sin gay *
Parents would get word their children were sick and they'd whisk them back home, sometim lerally burng all of the artifacts of their gay liv the procs. 's Channel 4, he's seen feedback om younger gay men — livg today's world of advanced preventative HIV medice and relative eedom — who are outraged "that such a world ever existed.
"Growg up gay, one of the thgs that's difficult is n be really hard to fd your elrs... " Davi the show's wrer and producer, Davi didn't only want to explore the impact of a once-myster and adly disease had on a generatn of gay men, but also the shame that surround .