With coronavirus making large-scale festivals a public health hazard and widespread protests forcing the nation into a reckoning on racial inequality, this Pride season is one unlike any other. And yet, the spirit of a movement itself born out of a protest lives on. As the month of June comes to a close and International Pride Day nears, E! News has asked some of Hollywood’s newest generation of LGBTQ stars to share what Pride means to them in 2020.
Welcome to The New Faces of Pride.
When Nicole Maines joined the cast of Supergirl in its fourth season as Nia Nal/Dreamer, she made history by becoming TV’s first trans superhero. Since then, she’s actively helped shape the stories written for her groundbreaking character, including one this March that tackled the very real-world issue of violence perpetrated against the trans community.
“It was so such an amazing episode to do because the very first day that I walked on set, people were coming up to me and just saying how excited and happy they were to be able to do this story on Supergirl,” Maines told E! News about episode earlier this year. “Everyone kind of understood the importance of this episode and everyone was just like, Nicole, I’m so happy to be doing this. I’m so excited for people to see this episode. So it was a feeling not just for me, but for everybody on set of importance surrounding this episode, which was really great to see.”