One of the gay rights activists featured in the TV mini-series When We Rise is political strategist Chad Griffin. As a teenager, the Hope, Arkansas native started volunteering for the 1992 Bill Clinton presidential campaign which led to a position in the White House Press Office with Dee Dee Myers. After graduating from Georgetown University and on the heels of the passage of California’s Proposition 8 which barred same-sex marriages, Griffin co-founded the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) with producer Rob Reiner to overturn the law. (The Supreme Court overturned the law in 2013.) In 2012, Griffin was named president of the Human Rights Campaign.
Chad Griffin is portrayed by T.R. Knight. He’s known for his roles on The Good Wife (Jordan Karahalios), Grey’s Anatomy (Dr. George O’Malley), and Hulu’s 11.22.63 with James Franco (Johnny Clayton), among others. Knight will appear next (as J. Edgar Hoover) on the TV series Genius about Albert Einstein based on Walter Isaacson’s biography. (Geoffrey Rush plays Einstein.) When We Rise premieres Monday, February 27 at 9pm on ABC.
