Original title
When We Rise
Released
2/27/2017
Origin country
US
Genre
Drama
Production companies
ABC Studios
Status
Ended
Number of seasons
1
Number of episodes
4
The personal and political struggles, setbacks and triumphs of a diverse family of LGBT men and women who helped pioneer one of the last legs of the U.S. Civil Rights movement from its turbulent infancy in the 20th century to the once unfathomable successes of today. The period piece tells the history of the gay rights movement, starting with the Stonewall Riots in 1969.
1972: Three people—an Arizona peace activist named Cleve Jones, an African-American sailor Ken Jones in Vietnam, and a Boston women's activist Roma Guy—all move to San Francisco to join the nascent gay community.
Roma helps take a stand against the National Organization for Women's attempts to purge lesbians from their ranks. Ken comes to accept—and fight for—his sexuality. After struggling to find San Francisco less welcoming than he'd hoped, Cleve hears of a New Yorker, Harvey Milk, running for election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
1978–79: Roma sees the establishment of The Women's Building. Harvey Milk runs for the Board of Supervisors against a backdrop of Anita Bryant's Moral Majority and John Briggs's statewide initiative to ban gay people and allies from working with children.
1981: A new disease, initially named gay-related immune deficiency, starts spreading among gay men and drug users in San Francisco. Roma and Diane start a family.
1992: A decade after the advent of the AIDS Crisis, Cleve (now played by Guy Pearce) unveils the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt in Washington, D.C., and visits ACT UP in New York as they fight for early clinical trials of new drugs. Ken (now played by Michael K. Williams) finds his life turned upside down when Richard dies of AIDS. Roma and Diane (now played by Mary-Louise Parker and Rachel Griffiths) work with Tom Ammiano to see Carole Migden elected to the Board of Supervisors—and find out he's the biological father of their daughter Annie.
1997: Ken relies on Cecilia Chung's support as he struggles with addiction at a VA hospital. Cleve visits the Human Rights Campaign in D.C., where Richard Socarides lobbies for Bill Clinton to do better than "don't ask, don't tell" and DOMA. Roma and Diane's daughter Annie struggles with her unconventional background. In Palm Springs, Cleve looks after the child of a drug-addicted neighbor. 2006: Cleve speaks to the interviewer we've seen throughout, against a backdrop of the murder of Matthew Shepard and George W. Bush's proposed Federal Marriage Amendment.
2008: As Barack Obama is elected president, California Proposition 8 revokes California's recently-acquired marriage equality, starting Cleve to help organise the National Equality March on Washington, D.C., and advocate for equal rights. Roma, Diane and Tom become grandparents and advocate for citywide universal healthcare in San Francisco. Ken is baptised, but finds some churches are less welcoming than others.
2009–13: Cleve takes the battle against Prop 8 through the federal courts all the way to the Supreme Court. Ken works with Cecilia Chung to get support for his church. Roma and Diane decide to get married if the Supreme Court allows it.
A young peace activist escapes his repressive life in Phoenix and heads to San Francisco, hoping to find refuge and community, but finds that the struggle for survival is just as difficult as it was back home. Elsewhere, NOW purges lesbians from its ranks.
Ken, Cleve, and Roma fight an initiative that would ban gays from working in California public schools, while Cleve works on the campaign to elect Harvey Milk as San Francisco City Supervisor. But soon a disease starts killing gay men all over the country.
AIDS continues to ravage the gay community. Cleve creates the AIDS quilt in order to get the President's attention, while Diane's daughter Annie struggles with her identity as the child of a lesbian couple and a gay man.
An energized Cleve inspires a group of young activists to organize a march on Washington to demand full LGBTQ civil rights, while Roma uses her skills to reform healthcare in San Francisco. Elsewhere, a group forms to try overturning California's discriminatory proposition banning gay marriage.
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