GLAAD CEO: Why ‘Fellow Travelers’ Checks “Coveted and Rare Boxes” With LGBTQ Storytelling (Guest Column)

Every so often, a series comes along that changes the game for the LGBTQ community and educates the masses about who we are and the discrimination we too often face. Whether a series brings Black transgender women to the forefront of the conversation like Pose or reminds young people and families that queer youth exist and deserve happiness like Heartstopper, we can all feel when a series has that perfect combination of a well-told story and a nuanced, accurate portrayal of LGBTQ people and issues.

On the heels of the 30th anniversary of Philadelphia, Showtime‘s Fellow Travelers, created for television by Academy Award nominee Ron Nyswaner, checks those coveted and rare boxes at a time when audiences need and demand more quality queer storytelling.

Beginning in the 1950s, amidst the fearful and discriminatory reign of Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn, Fellow Travelers is a powerful look into dark periods of our nation’s history including the Lavender Scare, the movement to cast LGBTQ people out of American society. Through the use of disgusting and inaccurate fear tactics, including narratives that we are “perverse” and “will indoctrinate children,” McCarthyism created a dangerous and violent climate against LGBTQ people.

Six decades after this harrowing era, Fellow Travelers is airing at a time when new political and cultural issues threaten our equality. Politicians are blatantly targeting trans people, using them as political pawns, and running political campaigns that leverage fear tactics to rob them of basic rights and dignity. Across social media and in baseless stump speeches from right-wing candidates, we are being falsely and maliciously labeled as threats to children and “groomers.”

Sound familiar?

As Hawkins Fuller (Matt Bomer) and Tim Laughlin’s (Jonathan Bailey) queer colleagues are expelled from the White House for threats of “perversion,” I am taken back to how just at the top of this year, over 500+ anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced by Congress, most of which target queer and trans youth. Some of these bills even charge educators to “out” their fellow students who may disclose to their teachers that they are LGBTQ, in the same way the White House called on constituents to do so in Fellow Travelers.

Through the character of Frankie, a queer Black person who embraces gender nonconformity and is portrayed splendidly by Noah J. Ricketts, Fellow Travelers also communicates to audiences at large that trans and nonbinary communities have always existed, and have always fought back against legislative and social oppression. How appropriate it is that Frankie is also a drag queen, another community conservatives today are trying to label as dangerous to children. Over the course of 2023, GLAAD counted over 160 attacks on the drag community nationwide. When audiences at home see the heroic and loving Frankie and know the real values and beauty of Black queer people and drag queens, our country can move away from that hate and violence.

Frankie is also engaged in a meaningful and powerful romance with Marcus (Jelani Alladin), a Black gay journalist and activist. Their wholesome and strong connection, complete with the adoption of an ostracized queer teen, remind me of couples GLAAD championed just last year in November of 2022, when we had to once again fight for our right to marry and advocate that Congress pass and President Biden sign the Respect for Marriage Act into law. Nonetheless, in March of this year, Iowa’s House of Representatives filed a joint resolution to amend the state constitution to force Iowa to only recognize marriages between “one human biological male and one human biological female.”

There’s no shortage of talent in and around Fellow Travelers to humanize our history and our lives. Bomer and Bailey’s moving and much-buzzed-about onscreen love should serve as a reminder to the industry that LGBTQ characters are best played by out LGBTQ actors. The show’s depiction of HIV/AIDS is a necessary one, especially when this history is actually banned from being taught at schools in seven states because of “Don’t Say Gay” and “Don’t Say Trans” education policies, where any discussion of LGBTQ people is censored. I am grateful to know that people across the country can turn on their TV and learn about the real challenges posed by the epidemic, especially at a time when Gen Z is the least knowledgeable on HIV/AIDS, per GLAAD’s latest research on HIV stigma and education.

A tragic love story, a history lesson and an acting masterclass all in one, Fellow Travelers does so much for audiences. The show launched with a letter from Nyswaner which ran in the Washington Post and was signed by LGBTQ organizations GLAAD, HRC and GLSEN. In the letter Nyswaner wrote, “With Fellow Travelers, we hope to illuminate queer history: the strength and resilience required in the struggle to love whomever we choose to love and the joy we manage to find in that fight. Our struggle toward freedom is the great, shared American saga. Our history is American history. Our stories are American stories.”

At a time when fringe anti-LGBTQ activists attack LGBTQ media images, we need Hollywood to take a stand and drown out the hate with hope, humor, heart and history. Make television history by telling queer history.

Sarah Kate Ellis has served as president and CEO of GLAAD since early 2014.