Offerg scen of unfettable mp and troducg one of the first out gay characters to mass dienc, the primetime TV seri Dynasty achieved inic stat, pecially among LGBTQ+ dienc.
Contents:
- DYNASTY’S JOURNEY OM GAY PANIC TO GAY PRI
- ‘I’M GAY’: GORDON THOMSON, DYNASTY’S ADAM CARRGTON, COM OUT—AND TRASH CW’S REBOOT
- 'DYNASTY' STAR GORDON THOMSON COM OUT AS GAY
- DUCK DYNASTY SON 'TRYG TO FIGURE OUT' IF BEG GAY IS A CHOICE
- GAY DADS LIVE FEAR THEIR ADOPTIVE CHILD WILL KILL THEM
DYNASTY’S JOURNEY OM GAY PANIC TO GAY PRI
Willie Robertson says he's not sure if people are born gay, but he lov them jt the same — proven by the fact that he works alongsi gay people who produce his fay's realy show. * gay son in dynasty *
The TV show Dynasty featured a gay in (and her son). But for years, spe the show’s anythg-go nature, there was one thg that Dynasty uldn’t get away wh: showg a happy homosexual.
Puttg a gay man on one of the most inic and popular shows of the was a long, multi-year fight — both on-screen and behd-the-scen — but was nothg pared to the battle took to keep him there. The story of Dynasty’s ntroversial gay son starts back 1979 wh, of all thgs, the oil crisis. And the son, Steven, who’s hidg his homosexualy om his nservative dad.
‘I’M GAY’: GORDON THOMSON, DYNASTY’S ADAM CARRGTON, COM OUT—AND TRASH CW’S REBOOT
” There had seldom been any recurrg gay characters on primetime TV — there was Jody on Soap, a fotten barfly on The Corner Bar, and gut-player Lori Shannon as Beverly LaSalle on All the Fay.
Dynasty’s pilot posns Steven ont and center, wh a climactic scene which Blake nonts his son about beg gay.
'DYNASTY' STAR GORDON THOMSON COM OUT AS GAY
He mands that Steven “straighten yourself out, ” hurls slurs at him, and sists that Steven never brg homosexualy to the hoe. There was so much stigma around homosexualy then that for many queer people, was simply easier to acquice and pretend they’d gone straight — pecially around fay. Over the 1970s, there had been a steady rise gay characters, acpanyg the growg queer liberatn movement.
) But the rise gay visibily on televisn ran to a brick wall late 1980s wh the electn of Ronald Reagan. There were over a dozen gay characters on TV 1979, but by 1981 there were almost none. He’d appeared on a gay-ish episo of The Love Boat a year earlier, and had lots of ias for where he uld take one of TV’s only gay characters.
And then there was Newt Dieter, a gay muny lear who was often sought out by TV producers to vet their scripts. His job was to make sure Dynasty didn’t ploy any offensive trop; for example, he advoted for a rctn the number of f-slurs, as well as removal of the somewhat ls egreg phrase “gay schmay.
DUCK DYNASTY SON 'TRYG TO FIGURE OUT' IF BEG GAY IS A CHOICE
So when this pilot fally aired, was wh a lot of liberate work on the part of creators, the producer, the actor, and even a gay muny lear to make sure they got the Steven character right. And bee of the sudn reluctance to put gay characters on TV the wake of Reagan’s electn, Dynasty wound up beg one of the only shows of s time to even attempt a storyle like this. Dynasty eely showed Steven gettg gay bashed, he jt uldn’t have have a gay kiss.
Season 1 ends wh Blake on trial for murr, which provis ample opportuny for him to reerate his homophobia.
The show’s settg up a real-life legal tactic known as a “gay panic fense, ” whereby a person argu that they were so upset by the prence of a homosexual that they beme, for legal purpos, temporarily sane, and therefore no longer legally rponsible for their actns.
GAY DADS LIVE FEAR THEIR ADOPTIVE CHILD WILL KILL THEM
A study 2020 found that gay and trans panic fens rulted urts rcg charg 33% of s where was ed. Blake was origally gog to be found not guilty until Newt Dieter tervened, aghast that the show would pict the killg of a gay man as havg zero nsequenc. Executiv noted that Steven appealed to women viewers, and wanted the producers to end the gay storyl and pair him wh women — sentially they wanted a py of the popular Bo character on CBS’s D of Hazzard.