With intimate and incredibly well-crafted interviews, The Out List is a gorgeously produced HBO documentary that showcases the voices of influential, iconic, out and proud LGBT Americans. Simple enough in the way they unfold against a dark grey backdrop with a sprinkling of archival photos for each subject, the interviews make you cheer or burst into tears. The 16 interviewees are incredibly well spoken, and together their stories weave a beautiful tapestry of the U.S. LGBT experience and our modern struggle for civil rights.

Actors Neil Patrick Harris, Ellen DeGeneres, and Cynthia Nixon each discuss coming out in Hollywood. Janet Mock, an African American writer and activist, talks about being blessed with familial support throughout her gender transition. Dustin Lance Black paints a portrait of growing up in a Mormon family. Lady Bunny vividly reminds us that drag queens and street kids were the ones who started the fight for LGBT rights decades ago. Larry Kramer urges us to embrace our anger. Wanda Sykes, the brassy and bold comedian, attends a 2008 Prop 8 protest where she comes out publicly. Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters examines how living on the margins gives you incredible perspective and empathy for others. Suze Orman recounts her 1980 pant-suited debut as a stockbroker at Merrill Lynch and tells an incredibly tender story of why she married her partner K.T.

— KEVIN SCHAUB