Film, TV, and theatre have taught me more about the HIV/AIDS pandemic — and its ripple effects on queer lives today — than I ever learned in school.

Of course, I saw mainstream hits like Milk (2008) and Dallas Buyers Club (2013). But it was independent and international films outside the mainstream that really did the heavy lifting.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly how I ended up learning all about it, but these are a few of the films and shows from the 2010s that really stuck with me:

• Pride (2014, UK) placed the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the context of the miners’ strikes in the UK
• Looking (2014-2016, USA) made me aware of how people live with HIV today and how the fear of HIV (instilled when millennials and Gen X were very young) continues to impact queer men
• Larry Kramer in Love and Anger (2015, USA), which I saw at Sundance, introduced me to ACT UP
• Angels in America (2017) at the UK National Theatre and Dr. Emily Garside’s scholarship made me aware of how important theatre was as a tool of activism and documenting the history of the HIV/AIDS pandemic
• BPM (2017, France) was my introduction to ACT UP as an international phenomenon

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and disproportionately affected marginalized communities, I started deliberately seeking out stories about the HIV/AIDS pandemic. I wanted to learn the playbook. To understand how people had responded (or didn't) before.

​That led to a podcast on HIV/AIDS on screen (featuring Dr. Emily Garside!) and a great big rabbit hole.

And since then, I’ve started to spot the subtle ways in which HIV/AIDS continues to cast a long shadow on queer people’s lives and how that shows up in queer stories (explicitly or tacitly).

That’s just one important piece of queer history that I never learned in school.

And where film, TV, and theatre became the starting point for my awareness.

Films/TV/theatre/books are such an important way to learn about and document queer and trans history. But they have their limitations, and they also often rely on the work of historians and archives.

That’s why Day 1 of Living Out Loud (October 3) is all about Reclaiming queer + trans history and the role that film/tv/theatre and the archives play.

You’ll hear from panellists who shaped my own thinking, including Emily Garside.

But we’re not stopping there:

• Day 2 zooms in on queer and trans stories on screen — some historical, some very much of this moment.
• And on Day 3, we’ll bring it all together with a short film that’s not just about reclaiming queer and trans history — it is a reclamation.
  Part fiction, part documentary, it ties together the themes of both days.
  After the screening, I’ll be hosting an in-depth, facilitated discussion to connect the dots — and open up space for your own reflections.

Each day builds on the last — unpacking how queer and trans stories get told, who tells them, and what gets left out.

This event is for anyone curious about how stories shape our understanding of queer + trans history and identity.

Whether you’ve lived these stories or are learning about them for the first time, you’re welcome here.

Because the stories we tell — and who gets to tell them — shape how we understand each other, and ourselves.

📌 Living Out Loud details

🗓 October 3–5, 2 pm-4 pm ET daily, live & online

💸 Free to register + attend

📝 Registration required (yup, even if you got this email)

👉 Register here

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📝 Already registered? Fab. You’re all set for all three days— but feel free to forward this to someone who’d love it, too

Hope to see you there,

Alex

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