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 The two-hour pilot episode of new reality series “Honey Child” begins filming this fall in Fresno, CA. “Honey Child” focuses on personal transformation in the lives of lesbian, bisexual and transgender women, as they conquer the adversity that sparks positive change.
The cast of “Honey Child” is extremely diverse. There are big city women and country girls, professionals, artists, students, and athletes, representing a range of ages, ethnic backgrounds, sexualities, appearances, and socioeconomic levels. The show seeks to illustrate that different circumstances create similar coping mechanisms. It will focus on the commonalities between people who appear on the surface to be very different, as well as similarities between people within gay and straight communities.
Show creator writer-director Zypher Williams decided to produce the show in response to an outcry from some African American lesbians who felt personally slighted that the cast of the Showtime spin-off “The Real L Word” did not racially reflect them. However, after Williams launched a casting call solely seeking African Americans, a friend pointed out that Williams was actually indulging in reverse racism. Williams subsequently opened the call to all women, and chose the nine starring castmembers and couple, based on the impact of their stories alone. “I just think that a good story crosses all boundaries,’ she says from her Santa Monica studio. “Humans identify with other humans, and become inspired when the human family is able to triumph over adversity,” she says.
Williams has undertaken an ambitious goal. She hopes the show will catalyze a renaissance in the perception of the LGBTQ community among an audience who has traditionally been a tough sell: the African American community. Williams cites the religion-based homophobia among some segments of the African American community as the source of many of the dangerous afflictions affecting African Americans who identify as LGBTQ. Higher substance abuse rates and the risky behavior it creates has led to higher STD rates among blacks, which is specifically rooted in a lack of community support when it comes to gays, Williams believes. Williams hopes that the show will inspire LGBTQ African Americans to celebrate themselves and that their hard-won self-acceptance will inspire the community at large to embrace them.
Williams anticipates that “Honey Child” will be embraced by both gay and straight audiences. “The daily trials, failures and successes in the lives of the castmembers create universal themes that will appeal to all who appreciate good stories,” she says. She hopes to provide a rainbow-colored prism through which audiences can experience an alternative point of view that will ultimately lead them to greater identification with people who are different from them … but not that different at all.
The show will film in eight additional cities, across the nation, before filming wraps in January 2011.
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