At an Outfest panel this week, out actor Daniel Franzese said that he was proud of his groundbreaking character in the HBO gay drama Looking.

Looking: The Movie, which ends the series about a group of gay men living in San Francisco, premiered at Outfest, Los Angeles' LGBT film festival.

In the show, Franzese plays Eddie, an HIV-positive character of size with a positive outlook on life.

“I'm very proud of our HIV storyline with Eddie,” Franzese said. “Eddie was the first character in six years to be on television as an HIV-positive character. I was told from the first time by [executive producer] Andrew [Haigh], he was never gonna get sick. And it was never going to be something that hindered him from living his life.”

Creator Michael Lannan said that he wanted to capture “a moment in time” when LGBT rights were rapidly advancing.

“We wanted to sort of just have people in their lives in a time of great change,” he said, adding that San Francisco and the world “literally changed during the show … with gay marriage.”

Looking: The Movie premieres July 23 on HBO.