Pose's depiction of anti-transgender violence should resonate more deeply than one night of TV

Esquire

The greater hope is that Tuesday's groundbreaking episode of Pose will have the same impact that Star Trek's first TV interracial kiss did in 1968, says Justin Kirkland. "There is a certain sadness that falls on the LGBTQ community in July," says Kirkland. "The corporate profitability of queer people grows less fruitful, and the reality sets in—Pride month remains a lucrative opportunity in a time when wokeness is en vogue. But in July, the allyship softens. The rainbow fades to gray. Life returns to the norm. The changing of months represents a quiet permission that the light shined on LGBTQ issues can be dimmed. That ambivalence is concerning and scary and a blunt truth that is oftentimes swallowed with a grain of salt by LGBTQ people. But on Tuesday night’s powerful episode of FX’s Pose, July feels like it’s fighting back for once. The groundbreaking series about ballroom culture from Ryan Murphy and Steven Canals said goodbye to one of its characters in a way that revolutionizes the way we talk about trans lives in media. The world of Pose has always been shrouded in a bit of sadness, even during its most jubilant balls. Set at the peak of the AIDS crisis in the late '80s, the looming threat of what might happen to its main characters—namely Blanca and Pray Tell—has practically been a character itself as the disease ravishes 1987 New York City. But when Season Two returned in early June, the tone shifted. While Season One felt like an introduction to New York's ballroom culture, Season Two doubled down and focused on the lives of its trans characters and those living with HIV and AIDS three years later in 1990. In its fourth episode, 'Never Knew Love Like This Before,' Pose tapped into the reality of being trans in 1990." ALSO: Tuesday's episode affirms Pose and Ryan Murphy's genius.