Longtime TV cric Dan Avery charts the history of gay, queer, and transgenr reprentatn popular Amerin seri om 1971 to today, om Ellen to Pose.
Contents:
- LBGTQ TV: A HISTORY OF GAY CHARACTERS, OM STONEWALL TO ‘BATWOMAN’
- TV'S GAY CHARACTERS, BEFORE AND AFTER ELLEN
- 10 MILTONE MOMENTS GAY TV HISTORY
- BILLY CRYSTAL PORTRAYED FIRST OPENLY GAY MA CHARACTER ON TV — SI THE 'SOAP' STORY
- GAY TEENS ON TV: A TIMELE
LBGTQ TV: A HISTORY OF GAY CHARACTERS, OM STONEWALL TO ‘BATWOMAN’
Gay characters the post-Stonewall era go a lot wir and eper than ‘Will & Grace’ and ‘Ellen.’ * the first gay character on tv *
As a Vulture say about a groundbreakg “All the Fay” episo noted, “In a moment where crics pot to ss as a medium that helped change public opns about gay rights, we should remember that the procs didn’t beg wh ‘Will & Grace’ or ‘Glee.
TV'S GAY CHARACTERS, BEFORE AND AFTER ELLEN
Univisn ma history this week when aired<a href="; target="external"> a same-sex weddg</a> on the telenovela "Amor Verdaros" ("Te Lov"). It's the first weddg of s kd (the, you know, same-sex kd) to be aired on the work. * the first gay character on tv *
Long before that, though, there were signature, cludg the 1971 episo of “All the Fay” which the bigoted, homophobic Archie Bunker was stunned to disver that an old buddy was gay. In 1972, Hal Holbrook played a divorced dad hidg the fact he was gay om his son “That Certa Summer, ” nsired one of the first sympathetic pictns of gay characters on televisn.
10 MILTONE MOMENTS GAY TV HISTORY
Back 1977, actor and edian Billy Crystal stunned dienc when he portrayed the first openly ga ma character a TV seri, "Soap." and opened the way for gay ins like Ellen DeGener * the first gay character on tv *
The 1980s brought AIDS to the nversatn, wh movi such as “An Early Frost, ” an NBC movie about a gay lawyer who mt break the news about his AIDS diagnosis to his parents. The same thg happened when ABC’s “thirtysomethg” beme the first seri to pict two gay men bed together 30 years ago, a dynamic that ed work officials to thk twice about approvg such storyl.
BILLY CRYSTAL PORTRAYED FIRST OPENLY GAY MA CHARACTER ON TV — SI THE 'SOAP' STORY
Can you gus which nostalgic TV show troduced the first gay character back 1972? * the first gay character on tv *
Ellen Man wasn't the first gay character on TV, but her g out on the ABC s Ellen, followg star Ellen DeGener' own claratn — "Yep, I'm gay" — on the ver of Time magaze, opened the door to portrayg them more openly and more often. A list of some of TV's more important gay characters, before and after Ellen: Bewched: Pl Lyn plays Uncle Arthur, who wasn't gay then — but probably would be now.
(1977)Love, Sidney: Tony Randall as a nfirmed bachelor who was gay the TV movie Sidney Shorr: A Girl's Bt Friend, but whose sexualy beme ambiguo the follow-up TV seri. (1989)20-year flashback: Ellen DeGener me out, and paved the way for more gay TV rolMelrose Place: Matt Fieldg (Doug Savant), who's gay, is the only person on this sexy soap opera who never seemed to have sex. (1999)Queer as Folk: Gale Harold's Brian and Randy Harrison's Jt are among the more proment characters this Showtime seri about gay men Ptsburgh, adapted om a (much better) Brish seri.
(2009)Morn Fay: Wh Mch and Cam (Jse Tyler Fergon and Eric Stontreet), no show has ever done more to fully rporate a gay uple to a fay story and normalize their relatnship and, later, marriage. In the years sce All the Fay troduced the first gay character primetime TV, there's now Pose, an acclaimed FX drama featurg the most transgenr seri regulars ever. CBS1971: All the FayAll the Fay ma LGBT history when troduced the first gay character primetime 1971, revealg that Archie Bunker's bar buddy Steve was gay.
GAY TEENS ON TV: A TIMELE
* the first gay character on tv *
YouTube1975: Hot l BalmoreThe Norman Lear s starrg Jam Cromwell, Charlotte Rae and Conchata Ferrell had perhaps the first pictn of a gay uple on an Amerin TV seri.
The character was divisive at the time—early plots had him wantg to bee a woman, he dated several women—but ultimately he was primetime TV's first gay dad. 1992: One Life to LiveIn 1992, the world met One Life to Live's Billy Douglas, played by a young Ryan Phillippe, the first gay teen character on daytime TV.
ABC1994: My So-Called LifeWhile One Life to Live had s first gay teen 1992, primetime's first openly gay teen seri regular character me to My So-Called Life's Enrique "Rickie" Vasquez, played by Wilson Cz. 1997: Ellen"The Puppy Episo" of Ellen featured Ellen Man (Ellen DeGener) g out as gay, the same time the star me out on the ver of Time magaze, makg Ellen the first show to feature an openly lbian actrs playg an openly lbian character. CBS2007: As the World TurnsMen were kissg primetime long before daytime fally got on board, but the soaps ught up 2007 when As the World Turns featured the first-ever gay kiss between two male characters, Le Snyr (Van Hansis) and Noah Mayer (Jake Silbermann).