Photo Courtesy of the New York Times.
Forty years after the start of the AIDS epidemic, there are still so many stories that have been left untold. With an estimated 32.7 million deaths so many beautiful souls have become lost in the numbers, and AIDS still lives on. Russell T. Davies, a British writer and director has for years and years intended to tell some of these long overdue stories with his show “It’s A Sin” which follows the AIDS epidemic on the British Isles. Expressions has decided to talk about the making and importance of this show in hopes that San Luis High school students will eventually watch the show themselves.
“If I tried to cast gay as gay 22 years ago, it didn’t exist. It’s a very precise thing that I’m casting, which is gay and publically out actors, who are prepared to join me in that statement. That’s a very brave thing to do,” said Davies in an interview with Deadline.
After trying to produce the “It’s A Sin” in 1995, Davies was met with some strange expectations. Most broadcasters wanted the story to become a pity shifting focus from the actual people to the progression of the disease. This along with the inability to cast “gay as gay” Davies let the project sit until March of 2020 when it aired on Channel 4 in Britian.
The show follows a group of mainly young gay men who move to London to follow their aspirations. Using beautiful storytelling to show the intense connections formed out of feeling inadequate and unloved, “It’s A Sin” along with its timeless soundtrack gives the audience a raw and emotional look into how the LGBTQ+ community in a time of crisis banded together to hold each hand through a dark and deadly time. The show offers younger members of the LGBTQ+ community a look into one the defining moments in the community.
“You know, now that I’m looking back, I realize what a huge impact that had on me as I was coming to terms with my own sexuality and the word gay and AIDS were used as jokes in the playground. It took me many, many years to begin to uncover what happened in this period of history,” said “It’s A Sin” lead actor Olly Alexander.
AIDS is still an extremely prevalent and deadly disease which continues on today, by telling these stories of the early days of the epidemic we helped people learn important history lessons that were left out of their high school textbooks. “It’s A Sin” is the beginning of a new future for LGBTQ+ TV focusing less on the stereotypes and overdone storylines to an actual human experience. It show how gay characters don’t need to rely on the TV normalization of what it mean to be gay, but just on their own unique brand. Casting “gay as gay” is finally allowing LGBTQ+ actors to break into mainstream film and television and will hopefully lead to more representation in the business.
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