Actor Wilson Cruz Is Still Standing Up for Queer Students

Follow this author to personalize your feed and get instant alerts. Follow Go to your personalized feed WHY FOLLOW? Smart Alerts: Get notified about major news as it happens. Carlin is a contributor for TIME. In 1994, at 20 years old, Wilson Cruz became the first out gay actor to play an out lead character on U.S. primetime television: 15-year-old Enrique "Rickie" Vasquez on the ABC teen "That was the power of Rickie Vasquez--he was going to allow people to see themselves for the first time," he says.