Black already knew Cleve Jones: In 2006, he went to Palm Springs to interview Jones about Harvey Milk, for whom he had worked, for Milk research. "He not only told me the stories of how he did what he did, and who Harvey Milk was," Black said of Jones, "but he also then looked at me and said, 'What is it like to be a part of the first generation in this country with no purpose? And what are you going to do about it?'"



That call to action is in When We Rise, and the unnamed character played by Douglas Smith is a stand-in for Black. (Black knows Smith from HBO's Big Love; Black was a writer for the show, and Smith played the character Ben Henrickson, a rebellious son of polygamous Mormons. "Doug Smith has been playing versions of me for a generation now," Black said.)

Black had a list of criteria for the characters in When We Rise. He wanted them to be people who had worked across social justice coalitions — particularly the anti-war movement, women's equality, and the black civil rights movement — and hadn't focused solely on LGBT issues. He also wanted them to be "lifetime activists," which cut the list of possibilities way down, "because it's such a difficult job," Black said.

And he wanted his main characters to be still be alive — survivors — in real life, defying the usual fates of LGBT characters in film and television history. "You can graduate to a serious dramatic role as long as you die in the end," Black scoffed. Citing Milk, he continued: "I made that movie. I didn't want to make that again."

Roma Guy's and Ken Jones' names kept coming up in his research, and then he discovered their connections to Cleve Jones: He and Roma were friends from San Francisco politics, and he and Ken had worked together many times. "And it became apparent how unique Cleve's story was," Black said. Regarding Jones' ubiquitous presence at key moments in LGBT history, Black said with a laugh that his mom calls Jones "Forrest Gump," whereas Black calls him "Zelig," after the 1983 Woody Allen movie. When We Rise is based in part on Jones' memoir of the same name.

Black wanted to tell a local political story in the series through Roma, a member of the then-homophobic National Organization of Women, who went from being closeted and afraid to an out lesbian raising a child with her partner (and later wife) Diane. She was one of the founders of the San Francisco Women's Building, a locus for feminist programs, and a member of the city's health commission who helped get universal health care for San Francisco.