“We've been here and queer since the dawn of humanity,” shared Eric Cervini, queer historian and executive producer of The Book of Queer, streaming on discovery+ starting June 2nd. The five-part documentary series showcases important moments in history with members of the LGBTQ+ community at the center. “We use the word ‘queer’ because it's so inclusive and it refers to so many different forms of deviation from cultural norms of sexuality and gender,” Eric added.
(discovery+)
“Visibility is so important,” comedian and narrator Margaret Cho affirmed. “To really feel like you exist is so powerful, and I think my emergence in television in 1994 influenced an entire generation of Asian American and queer comedians to be out there.” Margaret Cho is an LGBTQ+ icon, who talked about her own intersection of culture and sexuality during a TCA press conference to promote The Book of Queer. “My parents owned a gay bookstore in San Francisco, and I grew up in gay culture but the Korean society that we're from doesn’t acknowledge queer culture. In fact, they still have gay pride parades in Korea but people are often not allowed to take photographs because they don't want to have a witness to being there. So it's still very taboo in a lot of Korean society. It's very confusing. I think for my experience it was always very individual.”
Individual stories are at the core of The Book of Queer, which highlights 15 individuals from throughout history. “We have taken an angle to be very celebratory and to be uniquely queer with the way that we tell these stories,” explained executive producer Colin Hargraves. “It's not what you might expect from traditional recreations that you've come to know over time that might be a little banal or more stayed. This is a very queer show, and we tell our stories with joy, color, comedy, and camp. And we just can't wait for everyone to watch it and enjoy it.”
“It’s a powerful way to tell the story, in a fun way that is, to me, very close to something like Schoolhouse Rock,” Margaret Cho explained about the tone of the series. “You’re setting these very important historical stories to really fun songs, which I think in a way there’s a kind of a new way of learning for the Tiktok generation. The show moves very quickly. It’s very visual. It’s very funny. There’s like a lot of jokes but music. There’s so much to it that people can remember all of these historical facts with a lot of joy.” The Book of Queer launches at the start of Pride Month, which was born out of the Stonewall Riots. “The joy that’s in Stonewall probably wasn’t felt for a long time. Now we feel the joy of it. Now it’s celebrated. But then it was really this difficult experience where they had nothing they could do but revolt to reject what was going on. And so I think to look back on it, to look back at these painful experiences with a lot of celebration is really what Pride is all about, and it’s really what The Book of Queer is all about.”
“We're so thrilled to have 18 queer historians who will be helping to tell these stories,” Eric Cervini said of the show’s level of authenticity. “And on top of that, to make sure that we're doing right by the many communities that were telling their stories, we also partnered with 15 peer reviews to make sure that we're getting the facts right but also not making any mistakes that are so common in past representations of queer history.” Colin Hargraves added another important aspect to the series, only depicting LGBTQ+ actors in the show’s dramatized section. “It was incredibly important from the jump that we have an entirely queer cast to tell these stories, and also to have queer folks not only in front of the camera but behind the camera as well, so that we can tell these stories in an earnest and honest way. It’s certainly one of the pillars of our production company B17, and the principals Rhett Bachner and Brien Meagher, that we definitely find ways to tell unique stories, tell them authentically, and then find ways to tell them in a really clever, creative way.”
The Book of Queer premieres Thursday, June 2nd, only on discovery+.