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For Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black, writing and producing "When We Rise" is his way of making the world a better place.

"I wake up in the morning and I go, 'How do we move the needle [and] make this world a little more livable for more people?' " he said. "That's how my mom raised me."

It's the driving force behind the four-part, eight-hour ABC miniseries that chronicles the fight for gay rights, from the Stonewall riots in 1969 through the Supreme Court's decision legalizing same-sex marriage in 2015. It's a passion project for Black, who emphasized that his "conservative, Southern, Christian mom raised me like that. She gave me these tools."

At the same time, Black also acknowledged that he had a tough time growing up in a "strict Mormon home" on a military base in Texas. He said he knew he was gay when he was 6 and was convinced he would "embarrass" his family and "end up in hell" because of his feelings. That left him feeling "suicidal" at times.

But that experience made him all the more committed to telling the stories of those who fought for LGBT rights in a TV and movie environment in which activists are generally supporting characters who have to be "funny at first, usually," he said. "Then you're allowed to be dramatic as long as you die at the end. I've made one of those films."

(In 2009, Black won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for "Milk," a biography of martyred gay activist Harvey Milk.)

"I thought this was the time when we finally needed to make sure we showed that you can live a life of purpose and survive and thrive," Black said. "That is what these real-life people did. And I do hope that they inspire a new generation.

"The problem with LGBT history is that it hasn't all been written yet, and it certainly hasn't been brought to the public in a popularized, easily accessible fashion. And movements survive on their stories."

Among the real-life crusaders portrayed in "When We Rise" is Cleve Jones, who figured prominently in "Milk." He founded the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt and led the National March for Equality in 2009.

Portrayed by Austin McKenzie as a younger man and Guy Pearce as he grows older, Jones is a gay-rights icon.

"It's exhausting, often unrewarding work, and he stayed in the movement for 45 years," Black said. "My mom called him the Forrest Gump of the gay movement. It was hard not to use him as someone who would pull us through."

Pearce said he felt a strong sense of "responsibility" playing a real person, "particularly in something as important as this."

Black's teleplay tells a larger story by telling smaller ones — by focusing on individuals like gay-liberation activist Ken Jones (Jonathan Majors and Michael K. Williams), lesbian social-justice activist Roma Guy (Emily Skeggs and Mary-Louise Parker) and transgender activist Cecelia Chung (Ivory Aquino).

"I think that no story is more dramatically interesting than to see someone fight a battle that is seemingly unwinnable," said Parker.

(The enormous cast includes Charlie Carver, Henry Czerny, Balthazar Getty, Whoopi Goldberg, Arliss Howard, Sam Jaeger, T.R. Knight, Mary McCormack, Kevin McHale, Rosie O'Donnell, Denis O'Hare, Pauley Perrette, David Hyde Pierce, Carrie Preston, Richard Schiff, Phylicia Rashad, Rob Reiner, William Sadler, Dylan Walsh and Debra Winger.)

It's no coincidence that Black chose to feature activists who are still hard at work today.

"I do hope that a new generation looks to these people for inspiration, and we find ourselves with more leaders like this," he said. "We need those people now more than ever.

"I think it's about time for us to be able to tell our LGBT stories, to be taken seriously, to even be able to be political. And to show these people who can survive and thrive."

Which is not to say that "When We Rise" is a political screed.

"This show isn't four nights of telling [viewers] how they should think and feel," said Rachel Griffiths, who stars as lesbian activist, mother and grandmother Diane Jones. "It's not an educational propaganda tool."

She compared it to watching "Roots" when she was a child and "didn't feel like I was getting a lecture on how I should feel about black people."

Black spent four years working on "When We Rise" — a year just doing research — and never imagined it would air shortly after the installation of a Trump administration that's considerably less friendly to gay rights than its predecessor.

"I would give anything in the world for it to be less topical right now," Black said. "This show is not a war. We are not against anyone. Every single person in this world is a minority in one way or another."

He said he believes a lot of Trump voters "will love this show" and that Trump himself "might like the show."

It's a very emotional story of tragedies and triumph of significant gains and wrenching losses. And the overriding message in the words of Cleve Jones is, "Whoever you are, you are not alone."

"We need to be reminded that there's a lot of stories of triumph, of courage that this country was built on," said Williams, "and 'When We Rise' is truly one of them. It's a great time to tell the story to infuse pride again in just being Americans and celebrate our diversity, our differences and our unity."

Griffiths called it "the most important project I've ever been involved in because I think it goes to the core of who we are as humans and what we want to be as humans."

Black said he had his family in mind the entire time he was working on "When We Rise."

"My family is still religious and Southern and conservative, and I love them," he said. "And I treasure much of what I learned and how I was raised in that world.

"So I wrote this for my cousins and my aunts and my uncles and my family. I wrote it for my family from that other America to say, 'Hey, we've got more in common than you think, and we can actually speak the same language.' "

Twitter: @ScottDPierce —

On TV

The four-part, 8-hour miniseries "When We Rise" airs Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Feb. 27 and March 1-3, from 8-10 p.m. on ABC/Ch. 4.

(It originally was going to air Monday-Thursday, but then President Donald Trump's speech to Congress was scheduled for Tuesday.)

In addition, ABC will telecast the hourlong "When We Rise: The People Behind the Story" on Thursday at 7 p.m. It features interviews with several people portrayed in the miniseries, including Cleve Jones, Roma Guy, Ken Jones, Diane Jones and Cecilia Chung.