Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images Pride Essentials asks our favorite LGBTQ+ artists to share the influences that have made them who they are today.
Of course, Pose has since gone on to win multiple awards, including an Emmy, and was recently renewed for its third season. Canals, who grew up in New York City, a queer, Afro-Latinx person, continues to make projects that highlight underrepresented communities and recently signed a deal with 20th Century Fox TV to do just that. Below, Canals shares the texts, films, and people that shaped his identity growing up.
Get Real $9 now 33% off $6 $6 at Amazon Buy $6 at Amazon Buy The Real World: San Francisco I spent the summer of 1994 like most teens — watching The Real World: San Francisco on MTV. At the time, the LGBTQ community was being eviscerated by HIV/AIDS. The importance of seeing Pedro Zamora — an openly queer Latinx man living with HIV, working as a health educator — was hugely formative for me. At a critical time in my life, Pedro modeled how to live a life of service.
Will & Grace From $6 From $6 at Hulu Buy Redefining Realness, by Janet Mock After graduating college I spent nearly a decade working as a college administrator, and while I’d met and supported plenty of trans people, I’d never had a trans person walk me through their journey. And then I read Janet Mock’s Redefining Realness.