HBO Max has unveiled the cast for its upcoming docuseries Equal, and let's just say we're very ready for this educational binge. The series will explore the stories of LGBTQ+ activists and trailblazers — including Dale Jennings, Christine Jorgensen, and Lucy Hicks Anderson — who have worked to promote justice and equality within the queer community. It will take place during post-war America and before the 1969 Stonewall Riots. The show will include never-before-seen archival footage as viewers watch some of Hollywood's finest step into the roles of the real-life luminaries to bring their stories to light. Equal will drop in October in honour of LGBT History Month, though HBO Max has yet to announce a date. While we wait for more details, look ahead to see the star-studded cast in character!
Equal HBO Max TV Show Cast
See the Cast of HBO Max’s Equal Transform Into LGBTQ+ Activists and Luminaries
Cheyenne Jackson as Dale Jennings
Jackson will play Dale, a gay rights activist, playwright, and author. He was also one of the founding members of the Mattachine Society — one of the earliest gay rights groups in the US — in the early 1950s.
Anthony Rapp as Harry Hay
Rapp will step into the role of Harry — another founding member of the Mattachine Society — who scribed the 1948 manifesto "The Call," which encouraged more protection and rights for the gay community.
Shannon Purser and Heather Matarazzo as Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon
Purser and Matarazzo are portraying lesbian couple Del and Phyllis. The duo founded San Francisco's Daughters of Bilitis in 1955 — making it the first social and political organisation for lesbians in the US — and published The Ladder, the first nationally distributed lesbian publication in the US. In 2004, they became the first gay couple to wed in the Bay Area. Although their union was later voided by the courts, they tied the knot again in 2008 when the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage.
Sara Gilbert as J.M.
Gilbert's character J.M. is an anonymous reader of Phyllis and Del's publication The Ladder as she is forced to keep her sexuality a secret.
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Anne Ramsay as an FBI Agent
Ramsay's role as an FBI agent will show how the government kept active files on the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis as gay rights groups were often considered to be communist and dangerous.
Alexandra Grey as Lucy Hicks Anderson
Grey will transform into Lucy, who was a prominent socialite, chef, and prohibition-era entrepreneur, as well as one of the first documented Black transgender persons in the US.
Theo Germaine as Jack Starr
Germaine is set to depict Jack, a Montana resident who spends time in and out of jail while making headlines for refusing to wear gender-conforming clothes.
Jamie Clayton as Christine Jorgensen
Clayton will play Jorgensen, known as the world's first transgender celebrity, who became an internationally known figure after undergoing gender confirmation surgery in the early 1950s. She became a distinguished nightclub entertainer, author, and lecturer, using her celebrity status to advance the cause of transgender rights.
Isis King as Alexis
King is portraying Alexis, a composite character involved in Compton's Cafeteria Riot in 1966, one of the first-known instances of trans and queer resistance against police harassment.
Samira Wiley as Lorraine Hansberry
Wiley will depict Hansberry, the famed A Raisin in the Sun author and civil rights leader who discussed her lesbian identity and gay oppression under various pseudonyms.
Keiynan Lonsdale as Bayard Rustin
Lonsdale's character Bayard was a leading voice in the civil and gay rights movements. He was a close mentor and advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., helped organise the 1963 March on Washington, and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2013.
Jai Rodriguez as José Sarria
Rodriguez is transforming into gay rights icon José, a drag performer who became the first openly gay candidate for public office in the United States, running for a seat on the SF Board of Supervisors. José also founded the Imperial Court System, one of the oldest and largest LGBTQ+ organisations in the world.
Hailie Sahar as Sylvia Rivera
Sahar will share the story of Sylvia, who was a Latinx-American gay liberation and transgender rights activist. In 1970, she and friend Marsha P. Johnson cofounded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries to help homeless young drag queens, gay youth, and trans women.
Scott Turner Schofield as Craig Rodwell
Schofield will explore Rodwell's gay rights initiatives, including founding the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop in 1967 — the first bookstore devoted to gay and lesbian authors — helping to organise the first New York City Pride demonstration.
Cole Doman as Mark Segal
Doman's role as Mark will retell the journalist's efforts to advance gay rights, as well as detail his participation in the Stonewall Riots and creating the Gay Liberation Front's Gay Youth program.
Elizabeth Faith Ludlow as Stormé DeLarverie
Ludlow is set to play Stormé, an MC, singer, bouncer, bodyguard, and volunteer street patrol worker whose clash with police was reportedly the spark that ignited the Stonewall Riots.
Gale Harold as Howard Smith
Harold will portray Howard, an Oscar-winning film director, producer, journalist, screenwriter, actor, and radio broadcaster. The media mogul was able to report on the Stonewall Riots from the inside of bar, making him the only journalist who covered the event from the actual location.
Sam Pancake as Dick Leitsch
Pancake will take on the role of LGBTQ+ rights activist and Mattachine Society president Dick, who was the first gay reporter to publish an account of the Stonewall Riots. The article appeared in a special edition of the Mattachine Newsletter the day after he witnessed the first night of the demonstrations.