- I don't know that I ever felt
that it was my right to see myself on television,
but I will say that once I stepped into adulthood,
I felt like it was my duty and my responsibility
to fill in a gap.
You know, I could very clearly identify
who we weren't seeing in film and in television,
and so I felt like it's my responsibility then
to create content that will allow the communities
who often have been marginalized and overlooked
to finally be seen and centered.
- [Narrator] The stories we see about ourselves
have the power to shape our future.
And this series will honor
some of the most groundbreaking moments
of queer Latine representation in TV and film,
moments that grounded us in history, made us feel seen
and humanized our existence in front of,
and behind the camera.
Join us in uplifting the images, the artists, the stories,
the visions of us.
Before queer artists were celebrated
for writing stories that reflected their experiences
with love, community, and liberation,
queer representation in the medium of reality TV
helped in shifting the conversation.
In 1993, when Pedro Zamora,
a gay HIV positive Cuban American
charmed his way into millions of American homes.
His life helped spark a national conversation
that would have lasting effects to this very day.
- The mission of Pedro Zamora's all too brief life
was to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS
Pedro changed the face of HIV and AIDS in America forever.
- I feel like I have a relationship with Pedro
even though I never had the opportunity to meet him,
because we were on TV almost simultaneously.
And so we went from having no gay Latinos on television
and then suddenly we had two.
And watching his story was really difficult for me
because he was living my nightmare, right?
He was living the nightmare
of every young gay boy at the time.
But he gifted us with his strength
and his willingness to be vulnerable
in order to show us what this meant for someone,
what it meant to have this disease,
to have a relationship, to fall in love,
to disclose to your closest friends and family.
And to use that in order to change people's minds.
- That act of saying, I'm going to put myself out there,
even though it's scary,
and even though people might not understand
was incredibly powerful.
It also meant that, as President Clinton said,
everyone in America felt like they knew somebody
or had a friend who was living with AIDS.
And then the early '90s,
when people were still really, really frightened,
and there was a huge amount of stigma
about HIV, and who would get HIV,
and the image of people who were living with AIDS,
Pedro just being himself and being on TV
did a huge amount to change those stereotypes
and those stigmas.
- Just hearing Bill Clinton,
the president of the United States,
talk about Pedro after he passed was such a huge deal,
because for so long, politicians would not want to, you know
mention it or talk about it unless they were forced to,
but Pedro really humanized the experience
behind folks with AIDS, and folks living with HIV,
you know, because when you feel like you know someone,
that's why characters and representations are so important
because you feel like you know someone,
you feel like they're your best friend.
And Pedro felt like my best friend.
- I think we owe Pedro a great deal of gratitude
for how he changed the minds
of my generation at the very least.
- Pedro also gave so many people that weren't on TV
this ability to be humanized
in a way that people weren't before the real world,
because, you know, there was all this stigma around
and there still is to this day,
but Pedro had little glimpse of hope
for people living with AIDS
that they're just as special as everyone else,
and should be treated as such,
and looked up to in the ways that I looked up to Pedro.
- I think seeing him live his life
and living his life so fully,
was probably of greater importance
than to see this story
that they'd seen some other times before
where they see young men die.
So it was probably better that they didn't.
But we just had to live through that, that was,
that was the worst.
(sniffs) Sorry.
- I think it's critically important
for young LGBTQ+ individuals to know their history
because our history is not taught.
We're not part of curriculums, you know,
in middle school and high school,
we have to, as a community go out
and actually seek information about our community.
And so it's so critically important
for us to know who's shoulders we're standing on.
You know, the progress that we're seeing today in 2021,
that started well before this moment.
- The first time I feel like I saw myself on television
was when I saw myself on television,
because it wasn't just a feeling,
the fact of the matter is,
is that I was the first openly gay Latino
to play a series regular role on network television.
So I spent most of my youth and young adulthood
looking and wanting to feel seen,
and represented, and understood.
And I remember feeling a real lack,
a real need for the culture
and for this medium of television
to represent me and people like me.
And it felt like a void.
And so when the opportunity came to fill that void,
I did it for personal, and for personal reasons,
and for the people coming after me,
and for my young brothers under me,
and for my future nieces and nephews,
so that they could feel seen,
so that they could understand
that they too were a part of the fabric of this society,
and that they didn't deserve to be invisible anymore.
Rickie Vasquez was absolutely a collaborative effort.
You know, on the part of Winnie Holzman,
who was the creator of the series, and producer,
and conceived the concept,
she knew that she wanted
a Rickie Vasquez-like character on her show.
She knew that she wanted someone,
she wanted to tell the story
of someone who felt like they didn't fit anywhere.
This is a great example of why we need LGBTQ people
playing LGBTQ characters,
because I got to be a partner with her
and tell her what rang true and what didn't.
And she was humble enough to hear that.
And she was adamant about making this right
and making it a three-dimensional character,
that she was hungry for that information.
So the first step in that was coming out to my parents.
And so, yeah, I came out to them separately
but within a couple of months of each other,
and you know, my mom took it fine,
my dad, he did not take it well
and he threw me out of the house,
and it was a big blow up on Christmas Eve,
and, you know, it was the nightmare that I had expected
to be honest with you.
And so when my character,
when Rickie gets kicked out of his house on Christmas,
it was a way for me to process that as well,
and forgive my father and understand and see
and perhaps even feel some connection
to what he went through.
But the best part of the story
is that my father watched that episode,
and was one of the millions of people
who were changed by it.
And it's because of that episode
that my father got to see who I really was,
and got to understand what he did,
and got to arrive to a place
where he knew he had to apologize, and he did.
And so when I say that, you know,
Rickie Vasquez freed me to become all of who I am,
that includes being a son to my father.
I have never actually talked about this,
but you know, there's a big episode of "My So-Called Life"
called "Life of Brian" which most of it takes place
in and around a school dance.
And Rickie has a big crush on this boy at school,
he doesn't even know if he's gay,
he just knows that he's attracted to him,
he's fascinated with him.
And it's the first time we really see Rickie with a crush.
And there's a big dance scene at the end of the episode
with me and Senta Moses who plays Delia Fisher in the show.
And I really needed him to have a grasp of his sexuality.
I wanted to see Rickie in this dance,
not just dance in a way that was freeing,
but was also expressive of his sexuality,
that he was a sexual person,
and not just, you know, this asexual nice boy.
He was a teenage boy who had real feelings.
And so we never saw him have sex,
or kiss anyone, or anything like that.
So I thought this was our opportunity
to see him express his actual sexuality in a way.
And so when we were choreographing it,
there was a lot of grinding, and a lot of hip thrusts
that I really wanted to incorporate in there.
And for me, it was, you know,
people always watch that scene
and they talk about how freeing it was
because he let go of so much of the pain
that he was feeling in that moment.
And so when I watch it,
I watched this boy own all of his gayness.
And to me, that's really empowering,
because, you know as kids,
especially as gay kids and as LGBT kids,
we carry so much shame around our physical attraction,
we carry so much shame around what people think we do.
And I find so much joy and release and freedom,
and the fact that he throws it all off
and owns all of his sexuality in that moment
even though he has no hope at that time
in exercising it in any way.
But in that couple of minutes,
we see all of Rickie Vasquez
and I love that it's through dance.
I've never talked about that.
- Someone told me that when the time is right,
you'll just know.
- Sylvia, this is a testament to all the writers
and to the entire cast of "Ugly Betty"
that there was such a culture of support,
there was a culture of being delicate with this issue
like with the issue of a young brown boy
coming out as gay on national television.
When we started "Ugly Betty," I was 11 years old,
and Sylvia Horta created this character based on himself,
and his own relationship with his family
and as a queer brown man.
- Sylvia was so special,
not only one of the kindest people that I ever met,
but what a trailblazer in the industry
to bring Betty, la Fea, and turn it around
and turn it into "Ugly Betty"
and have America just gagging
and eating out of the palm of his hand,
and, you know, winning all these awards
and giving opportunity to people like us, you know,
it was amazing.
- So the character of Justin Suarez on "Ugly Betty"
was someone who just lived out loud,
and was authentically himself, and never really,
well, I think what's so unique about that also
was that his family didn't react any differently,
everything that he did or said or wore,
they just immediately accepted him and embraced him
as part of their family, and that just was who he was.
- What made Justin one of a kind to me, personally
is that we were both coming out of the closet
at this exact same time.
So it was extremely, I don't think that I would be
as comfortable in my sexuality
at as young of an age that I was, if it wasn't for Justin.
I think that it's important to be seen
as a means of not only inspiring people
to speak up about themselves, defend themselves,
to advocate for themselves,
to feel that they have agency to speak,
I think that having a seat at the table
requires bravery and courage.
- Seeing these images and these stories unfold
on national television,
it really does change a lot of people's minds.
- The reason that having a brown queer and femme Latino boy
as part of this representation was super important
because that character to me felt so grounded,
and so, you know, lovable,
there are so many, the representation that I've seen
that have led me on my way have always been those characters
that I'm like look at that vulnerable, fierce, strong bitch.
And it showed kids, you can be this too,
and you can be sickening, and you can be, you know, brown,
and you could have, you know, all of these layers to you,
and still be, you know, not only worthy,
but worthy of celebration.
- The biggest accolade, the biggest award,
the biggest reward is being a part of something
that laid a blueprint for representation moving forward.
I mean, if there wasn't "Ugly Betty"
there wouldn't be a lot of things on television right now.
- What are you doing?
- I think I have a thing for you.
- Not to toot our own horn,
but on "POSE" there are a lot of firsts,
and so the truth is,
I don't think that we spend a lot of time asking ourselves,
has that been done before, you know?
Is that gonna be a first?
As much as we just wanna honor the truth of the characters,
and the narrative that we are telling.
And truth be told, you know, I'm extremely proud of my work,
both writing and directing that episode,
and specifically, having the opportunity
to show on television two HIV positive gay black men,
making love on a major network was huge,
but I don't think I realized
or really spent time processing the enormity of that moment
until I think (chuckles)
really until I was editing the episode,
and realized what I'd filmed.
I think up until that point,
I just wanted to honor the experience
that these two characters were having.
And obviously as a director,
I just wanted to hold that really private
and intimate space with my actors
so that they felt that I was protecting them,
they felt that there was trust there,
and that we could all go
to that really gentle place together.
- I think that that scene also challenges
queer and trans folk to really unlearn
ideas of health that they inherited.
Because for two black HIV positive men
to be soft with one another
is for them to rewrite the narrative
and a commitment to truly live life.
- It's our lives that are being captured,
and being expressed through this story,
and so who better to tell the story?
(light music)