Three decades ago, when the Out100 first launched, Philadelphia premiered and changed the world for LGBTQ+ representation. The film starring Tom Hanks as an attorney fired for his gay identity and HIV status earned writer and activist Ron Nyswaner an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. It marked just the beginning of Nyswaner’s stellar career as a gay storyteller.
Another Hollywood gamechanger from the Pennsylvania native? Fellow Travelers, the Showtime drama that recounted decades of LGBTQ+ history through the eyes of gay lovers: Hawk (Matt Bomer) and Tim (Jonathan Bailey). McCarthyism, disco, the AIDS crisis — it’s all there, along with some of the steamiest, most authentic queer sex ever aired on TV.
Nyswaner is proud to use storytelling to spark empathy. As he would say during the production of Fellow Travelers (as retold to Out), “We are exploring and creating a drama about the history of the LGBTQ+ community and our struggles. But we are also making a drama about the human struggle. And there aren't that many barriers, really, between human beings except that those that we create.” @ronnyswaner
