Medical drama ER was a huge hit with audiences when it made its debut in 1994. The show would go on for 5 seasons making it one of the longest running television drama series at the time.
During the show’s second season in 1995 it featured a story about HIV which is credited in bringing much greater public awareness to the fact the virus affects people from all walks of life, while also showing the realities of people living with HIV at a time when drug regimens were giving people new hope.
Actor Gloria Reuben joined the show during its first season playing Physician’s Assistant Jeanie Boulet. Her character was involved in an adulterous affair with one of the show’s doctors Peter Benton played by Eriq La Salle.
When the second season aired Reuben was promoted to being a regular member of the cast. In the show Jeanie Boulet was married to philandering husband Al Boulet. As the second series progressed it was revealed that Al was HIV positive, leaving Jeanie and Peter to wonder if they too had contracted the virus.
At this stage Al and Jeanie had been separated for some time and Jeanie’s affair with Peter had also ended. But as the characters learned, and the audience did too, HIV can be in a person’s system for many years before any symptoms show.
At the beginning of the shows third season, we discovered that Jeanie’s results had come back positive, while Peter’s were negative. Gloria Reuben continued to play the character until the show’s sixth season providing a rare portrayal of a person living with HIV on primetime television.
The character also made a guest appearance during the show’s fourteenth season showing she was still going strong, and had adopted a child too.
The episode Take These Broken Wings which began the HIV related storyline first aired on this day in 1996.
Rueben has gone on to appear in many TV series including Falling Skies, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Mr. Robot, Blindspot, City on a Hill, and The Equalizer. She’s currently appearing in Elspeth, the Paramount Plus series that’s a spin-off of The Good Wife and The Good Fight.
Michael Beach who plated husband Al Boulet is currently portraying a Walrus trapped in a human body in Dead Boy Detectives. After his stint on ER he played Monte Parker on Third Watch and T.O. Cross on Sons of Anarchy.
Eriq La Salle has regularly appeared on television in many shows including Without a Trace, Under the Dome, Covert Affairs and 24. Nowadays though you’re most likely to see him listed as a director. His credits include The Librarians, Chicago PD, Law and order, Lucifer, CSI: Cyber and Madam Secretary. He’s also recently written a novel.
Peter Pan author James M Barrie is born in in 1860
Author J.M. Barrie was born on this day i n1860. The Scottish novelist is best known for his children’s book Peter Pan which was first performed as a play in 1904 and a novel in 1911.
While Barrie wrote many books and play, it’s his Peter Pan series that he is remembered for.
Barrie married actress Mary Ansell in 1891 but their marriage was never consummated and the couple later divorced in 1909. Ansell went on to marry the man she’d been having an affair with but Barrie continued to pay her an annual allowance.
He died in 1937 at the age of 77 after developing pneumonia. In his will he left the copyright of his Peter Pan works to The Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, a gift that continues to benefit the hospital to this day.
In 2012 Barrack Obama announces he’s changed his mind, and now supports marriage equality
In 2012 US President Barrack Obama gave a landmark interview where he announced he was in favour of allowing same-sex couples to get married.
It was a reversal of his previous position he declared when he came to office, in 2008 Obama had voiced support for civil unions but not full marriage. His announcement followed voters in North Carolina passing a constitutional amendment that banned both same-sex marriages and civil unions.
Speaking to Good Morning America President Obama said he had undergone an ‘evolution’ on the subject and said,
‘At a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.’
President Obama gave a personal view on his thoughts stating,
“I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage.”
