'Will & Grace' Broke Ground for Gay Reprentatn—Can It Do It Aga? | GQ

Contents:

• WILL AND GRACE STAR CONFIRMS HE’S GAY
• «RENDS LE STUME SPIRMAN» : UNE SCèNE SEXE GAY TOM HOLLAND DANS THE CROWD ROOM DéCHAîNE LA TOILE
• IS THERE GRACE FOR GAY PEOPLE? APPARENTLY NOT…
• WILL & GRACE BROKE GROUND FOR GAY REPRENTATN—CAN IT DO IT AGA?
• 'I WOULDN'T GET THIS ROLE TODAY': WILL & GRACE'S STRAIGHT 'GAY' STAR
• HOW WILL & GRACE PAVED THE WAY FOR GAY CHARACTERS ON TV
• ‘WILL & GRACE’ FANS ARE STILL UNSURE IF ERIC MCCORMACK IS GAY REAL LIFE
• GRACE GAY OBUARY
• GRACE GAY FOUND 142 PEOPLE FLORIDA, GEIA AND 37 OTHER STAT
• REMEMBERG JOSEPHE GRACE GAY
• GRACE (GAY) BOGARD, OBUARY
• FAY OF JOSEPHE GAY RELEAS STATEMENT
• GAYT PLAC IN MARYLAND FOR 2020

WILL AND GRACE STAR CONFIRMS HE’S GAY

The star of the popular, Emmy-wng gay s adds, "I feel like I've ntributed monumentally to the succs of the gay movement Ameri, and if anyone wants to argue that, I’m open to . The ensemble edy seri featured two gay characters—lawyer Will Tman (Eric McCormack) and aspirg actor Jack McFarland (Sean Hay)—and their bt iends, terr signer Grace Adler (Debra Msg) and eccentric sociale Karen Walker (Megan Mullally), whose fun-filled antics were enjoyed by lns of viewers for eight seasons on NBC. Kohan was a mutual iend who watched their relatnship change and mature over the only relatnship NBC executive Warren Ltlefield was terted , however, was the one wh the gay man livg wh the straight woman.

«RENDS LE STUME SPIRMAN» : UNE SCèNE SEXE GAY TOM HOLLAND DANS THE CROWD ROOM DéCHAîNE LA TOILE

When Mutchnick and Kohan wrote the pilot, they jt foced on the Will and Grace two creators named the show Will & Grace based on a ncept the Jewish philosophy book I and Thou by Mart Buber, which he says that one needs the "will" to go after the prence of the Eternal and the "grace" to receive wag to hear about the fate of their show after submtg their pilot script, the two men sent Warren Ltlefield fax listg the box office numbers of The Birdge and My Bt Friend’s Weddg, two h movi featurg gay Hay was at the Sundance Film Ftival Park Cy, Utah when a work stg executive faxed him the pilot script for Will & Grace after seeg him Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss.

I don’t re what your stance is on homosexual marriage, gay rights, or whether or not same-sex relatnships are sful, everybody should be able to agree that what “Grace” Universy is dog is certaly NOT grac. In 2012, former Vice Print Joe Bin ced the NBC s Will and Grace as a reason for Ameri's "evolvg" attu on homosexualy 2012: "I thk Will and Grace probably did more to te the Amerin public than almost anybody has ever done so far. Broadst televisn the early 2000s was a powerful form of reprentatn wh work UPN and s Ain-Amerin geared programmg, diverse soaps like telenovela adaptatn Ugly Betty, and y, ss like Will and show, starrg a gay man and his straight female roommate, at least partially managed to te straight people on the ia that there's more than one type of gay person—albe rich, whe, affluent on.

IS THERE GRACE FOR GAY PEOPLE? APPARENTLY NOT…

There was Jack, the flamboyant one most people assumed gay men to be; then there was Eric McCormack's Will Tman, the mundane, everyman that tght straight people their next-door neighbor uld be gay. As portrayed by Megan Mullally, Karen was the boozy, outspoken bch of the NBC s, often ed as a gay male surrogate the way that the women of Sex and the Cy uld often be.

Much has been ballyhooed about whether Jack's feme, theatre-lovg, melodramatic portrayal did a disservice to gay men as the one mastream reprentatn on televisn.

WILL & GRACE BROKE GROUND FOR GAY REPRENTATN—CAN IT DO IT AGA?

The stereotyp are nstantly nonted by seri like RuPl's Drag Race and films like Moonlight, but there are still gay men who prefer to date a "mascule" man, one who do not project to the world like a Bat signal that he's a homosexual.

'I WOULDN'T GET THIS ROLE TODAY': WILL & GRACE'S STRAIGHT 'GAY' STAR

If Karen were a gay man, would have been a tly revolutnary portrayal and one of the first steps towards fantastilly three-dimensnal characters like T on The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Lafayette on Te Blood. A much bolr portrayal of Jack would've shown how a brash, no-nonsense feme gay man uld enjoy sex and relatnships jt as anyone exists a long le of female characters wrten by gay men who keep you tung wh their outrageo behavr and snappy one-lers. Ryan Murphy has practilly ma a reer out of the women (Jsi Lange, Nene Leak, Jane Lynch, and Ellen Bark have all portrayed one or many), whereas his gay men tend to be sad, tortured begs like the perpetually sacchare Kurt and Blae on Glee or Fd's pictn of gay actor Victor Buono.

Hay, who told gay fans last year he "owed them a huge apology for g out too late, " is now an openly gay man who has an ia of what 's like to fully embrace your sexualy 2017. If Will & Grace were beg st for the first time today, Eric McCormack nces, "I probably wouldn't get anywhere near this role"'s bee McCormack is straight, and this era of diversy and thenticy stg would be a bold, perhaps even foolish, cisn to st anyone but a gay actor a seri that puts the character's sexualy ont and he'd be out of a job this hypothetil scenar, the first "gay" man many middle Amerins weled to their hom is OK wh that. "I thk wasn't a terrible thg 1998 that a straight guy played the role, but I'm glad that tim are changg, and I'm glad that nowadays a Will Tman would probably be st wh someone who is gay, " he says.

HOW WILL & GRACE PAVED THE WAY FOR GAY CHARACTERS ON TV

The 2006 study, nducted by Edward Schiappa, Peter Gregg and Dean Hew, was groundbreakg not for s ncln but bee disvered how prejudic were big news, acrdg to Schiappa, was this fdg, quoted om his study: “For those viewers wh the fewt direct gay ntacts, exposure to Will & Grace appears to have the strongt potential fluence on rcg sexual prejudice, while for those wh many gay iends, there is no signifint relatnship between levels of prejudice and their exposure to the show.

” Schiappa, the head of Comparative Media Studi at MIT, explaed over email, “That is what persuad that exposure to gay men on televisn was functng the same manner as terpersonal ntact. Probably the bt episo of the first season was "Will Works Out" where Will is terrified that one of his clients would fd out he was gay, and his own ternal homophobia shone through when he lled Jack a "fag.

Bee once Will and Jack kicked open TV's closet, there was no lookg NBC ma the cisn to add -creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick's bawdy ltle edy, the ultimate unrequed love story between terr signer Grace Adler (Debra Msg) and her nrotic gay lawyer BFF Will (Eric McCormack), to s stable of programmg 1998, there were no real gay characters on TV to speak of.

‘WILL & GRACE’ FANS ARE STILL UNSURE IF ERIC MCCORMACK IS GAY REAL LIFE

Prr to that, there had been a smatterg of gay characters a handful of seri, though they were always a supportg role—and often they befell some great tragedy while any realistic pictn of a love life was avoid at all sts.

The characters were GINOs—Gay Name Only—and ually only when me time to die of when Will & Grace h the air, fally there were two gay men who did not pretend to be anythg other. In this passage om her recently published memoir, Jon rells her first enunter wh gay culture via her brother Chris, and she offers her own view of how our tegori of sexualy and genr n be as hrg as they are helpful.

GRACE GAY OBUARY

Grace Jon is perched on a ledge above the dancefloor of New York’s 12 Wt, the state-of-the-art, members-only gay dis, about to take the stage for one of her first performanc. Wh the exceptn of maybe hairdrsers and artists, queer people risked unemployment if they merely hted at their orientatn outsi the nf of gay bars and clubs, and was the diss that the seeds of liberatn were sown.

LaRue, a cult dis act whose world-weary, gay-d “Cathedrals” praged Pet Shop Boys, and former Sugarloaf ontman Jerry Corbetta, the most soulful of Jon’ dis sgl also poted toward her future. I remember protters disptg the filmg of William Friedk’s Cisg, which retold the real-life story of a fugive who had lured men out of gay bars to bed and then killed them.

GRACE GAY FOUND 142 PEOPLE FLORIDA, GEIA AND 37 OTHER STAT

Havg tried harr, thought broar, and crossed more boundari than most of her ntemporari, this dance-floor renega closed out the boxed and the late ’80s, I had moved to San Francis; AIDS was cimatg the gay muny. More recently, Hay has revealed that he's "ashamed and embarrassed" he stayed the closet for so long when he might have ma a difference young gay people's liv by g out sooner.

Fellow executive producer David Kohan and producer-director Jam Burrows agreed, notg that the show had troduced and normalized gay people for a swath of the public. Out of the four ma Will & Grace st members, the tular pair were the rerved on: openly gay lawyer Will Tman (Eric McCormack) and his (straight-intifyg) terr signer bt iend Grace Adler (Debra Msg).

REMEMBERG JOSEPHE GRACE GAY

One of the first work seri to regularly feature homosexual characters, Will & Grace was a top-rated h for most of s 1998-2006 n on NBC, wng an Emmy Award for Outstandg Comedy Seri and more trophi for all four members of the ma st. When Will & Grace premiered 1998, was downright revolutnary that a major broadst work would air a primetime show which two of s four ma characters (Will Tman and Jack McFarland) were openly gay men. After he saw the Will & Grace pilot 1998, Deamer says he felt "chagred, embarrassed, and vastated" when he realized that the character based on him was picted as "flamboyantly gay, nstantly over the top, promiscuo, and irrponsible.

In an terview wh Gay Star News, Hay revealed that an attempt to lm the star's nerv durg a table readg of the script, he started "praisg her" to which she sarstilly rpond "Thank you. " The crge-worthy moment only worsened when after awardg Turner wh tickets to see a live-tapg of the show, Kelly stated she was unsure of Turner's journey toward a law gree but believed "the 'Will & Grace' thg and the gay thg is gog to work out great!

In an terview wh Oprah, Sean Hay revealed his favore celebry meo was Matt Damon as Owen, a straight man tryg to sneak his way to the New York Gay Men's Chos and beat Jack out of the top spot.

GRACE (GAY) BOGARD, OBUARY

It is wh ep sorrow that we announce the ath of Grace Gay of Tallahassee, Florida, born Tloosa, Alabama, who passed away on Augt 31, 2022, at the age of 91, leavg to mourn fay and iends.

Leave a sympathy msage to the fay the gutbook on this memorial page of Grace Gay to show was preceased by: her parents, Jam Edgar and Rosie Dunn; her hband Wallace Gay; and her siblgs, Troy, Leroy, Cecil, Buddy, Red, Junr Dunn, Evelyn Shelby, Va Lou Dunn, Sybil Mchell, Ruby Nell Brooks and Rosie Lee is survived by: her children, Kimberly Gay Lgel, Kenh Gay (Brenda) of Tallahassee, FL and Charl Aultman (Loyle) of Northport, AL.

FAY OF JOSEPHE GAY RELEAS STATEMENT

; her grandchildren, Lara Lgel, Chris Gay, Siera Gay, Jordyn Plk, Crystal Corrie, Doug, Mark, Michael Aultman, Nakia Johnson, Arabella Johnson, John Carlos, Gabriel Cz, KJ Corrie, Ellei Mae, Paislei Grace Gay, Kody, Noah, Aaron and Carole Aultman; and her regiver Tamara Davis. “Gay-Gay” is survived by Kym Gilhooly, Kate Gilhooly, Kev Gilhooly, Kerry Champagne, Kris Gilhooly and grandchildren, Hillary, Becky, Julia, Riley, Shane, and Krist.

/ Gaye Gerard/Getty ImagGrace Jon has had a number of high-profile relatnships through the years—Gou, her former bodyguard-turned-actor Dolph Lundgren, stuntman and bodybuilr Sven-Ole Thorsen—but the only time she married was to a Turkish man she met Belgium, Atila Altnbay. Only once before had a gay man been a central character an Amerin s, and not only was the lead character “Love, Sydney” (played by Tony Randall) eply the closet, but his sexualy was only hted at that seri’ two-season n.

GAYT PLAC IN MARYLAND FOR 2020

McCormack relled that, before st members met wh televisn crics for the first time 1998, they had a “big meetg” wh work executiv which they were told “don’t play up the gay too much” bee NBC execs “were aaid of Ameri not tung right om the begng.

”In 2012, then-Vice Print Joe Bin me out favor of gay marriage — before Print Barack Obama and three years before the Supreme Court ma legal — and said, “I thk ‘Will & Grace’ did more to te the Amerin public more than almost anythg anybody has done so far. (Photo urty of Chris Haston/NBC) "Will & Grace" stars Debra Msg, Sean Hay, Megan Mullally and Eric McCormack take a fal yet, when “Will & Grace” returned to NBC 2017, was far more unual to have a show back on the air after an 11-year absence than was to have a show wh gay characters.

And that’s the good thg — televisn and Ameri have arrived at a pot where gay people are part of the is not to say that TV don’t still have a lot of work to do when to diversy.