When We Rise

A young peace activist escapes his repressive life in Phoenix and heads to San Francisco, hoping to find refuge and community, but finds that the struggle for survival is just as difficult as it was back home.

Roma is a dedicated member of the women's movement who has not come to terms with her sexuality. When NOW purges lesbians from its ranks, Roma moves to San Francisco and dedicates herself to opening the first women's center in the country by women, for women.

Ken, Cleve, and Roma fight an initiative that would ban gays from working in California public schools, while Cleve works on the campaign to elect Harvey Milk as San Francisco City Supervisor.

In 1981, a disease dubbed "gay cancer" starts killing gay men all over the country. Cleve, Ken, Roma, and Diane struggle to educate a terrified community with what little information they have, and Cleve is inspired to create the AIDS Memorial Quilt.

AIDS continues to ravage the gay community in the early 1990s. Ken enters a VA hospital to receive treatment and is closeted in the midst of "Don't Ask Don't Tell." When Diane's daughter Annie begins asking about her father, Roma and Diane hunt down the biological father.

An out of touch Cleve moves to Palm Springs in the late 1990s for his health, and finds happiness while caring for his drug-addicted neighbor's baby. Diane's daughter struggles with her identity as the child of a lesbian couple and a gay man.

In 2008, an energized Cleve inspires a group of activists to organize a march in Washington to demand full LGBTQ civil rights, while Ken struggles to reconcile his sexual orientation with his membership in a
conservative church.

Cleve joins a group attempting to overturn California's discriminatory proposition banning gay marriage, which makes its way to the Supreme Court. Ken finds salvation by joining an inclusive church and becoming a minister. Cleve, Ken, and Roma come together at Roma's wedding to Diane, and are struck by the victory they helped achieve.