“When We Rise” looks like the LGBTQ drama we need to fight back in 2017

We’re so excited for the upcoming LGBTQ mini-series, When We Rise, and guessing from the trailer, it looks like the drama we all need to fight back in 2017.

Written by Oscar-winning screenwriter and activist Dustin Lance Black, When We Rise follows various moments in the LGBTQ rights movement across seven episodes, focusing on the true stories of those people who made a difference to the lives of millions of people.

The show, which is set to air on ABC in February, is partly based on the biography of the same name by real life gay rights activist and contemporary of Harvey Milk, Cleve Jones, and features a plethora of huge names, such as The Hurt Locker’s Guy Pearce, Six Feet Under’s Rachel Griffiths, The Wire’s Michael K. Williams, and Whoopi Goldberg.

Now a new trailer for the drama has premiered, and it looks so powerful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwvgMNE9ozg

Set to Andra Day’s “Rise Up,” the trailer showcases some of the different and difficult struggles that many people have experienced throughout  the decades, including the historic Stonewall Riots. It looks so important, powerful, and seriously emotional.

Speaking during the Television Critics Association press tour, the show’s creator and writer, Dustin Lance Black, told how he grew up in a conservative home and hoped that the show could bridge the gap between those who might not necessarily agree with the show’s subject matter.

"I wrote this for my cousins and my aunts and my uncles and my family," he said. "I wrote this for my family from that other America to say, 'Hey, we got more in common than you think and we can actually speak the same language.'"

Continuing, Black said that he also felt that the mini-series’ themes were topical to today’s socio-political climate.

"I would give anything in the world for it to be less topical in the world right now than it is right now," he said. "But I’m not entirely surprised, because as a student of history I know that history is not a straight line. History is a pendulum "I do think it's a necessary conversation to have right now."

Mary-Louise Parker, who stars in the mini-series, also recently spoke about why she became involved with the show and why its LGBTQ them was so important to her.

“This show is resonant to me on so many levels because not only did, you know, both my college roommates died from AIDS — people dropped dead left to right,” she said. “It wiped out an entire population of an audience in New York City. As Fran Lebowitz said once so beautifully, ‘Where went the audience for the opera and the ballet and the theater?’ There’s so many things that have been lost that, for me, this story really resonates on that level.”

Dustin Lance Black has said that he hopes the series unites people from different walks of life, and we hope that, in some way, this happens. These are important stories to tell, and we’re glad that ABC has given him, and the rest of the cast and crew, the opportunity to tell them.

When We Rise begins on ABC on February 27th.