LBGTQ TV: A history of gay characters, om Stonewall to 'Batwoman' | CNN

Contents:

• LBGTQ TV: A HISTORY OF GAY CHARACTERS, OM STONEWALL TO ‘BATWOMAN’
• 10 MILTONE MOMENTS GAY TV HISTORY
• WHEN HOLLYWOOD STUDS MARRIED OFF GAY STARS TO KEEP THEIR SEXUALY A SECRET

LBGTQ TV: A HISTORY OF GAY CHARACTERS, OM STONEWALL TO ‘BATWOMAN’

To celebrate this tone queer visibily, we looked back over the past three s and round up the 30 most inic LGBTQ characters TV history, om loveable gay uple Mchell and Cameron to trans trailblazers like Sophia Burset. Even though Jack McFarland’s character has received a mixed receptn for perpetuatg gay stereotyp, he’s one of the longt nng and most inic queer characters on televisn, appearg ten seasons and 188 episos of Will & Grace to date. He was the first gay man to kiss another man on work TV, and was one of the only ma gay characters on our screens the 90s.

Mark Inlito has gone on rerd to say that he received a lot of fan mail for his portrayal, wh young gay kids ‘thankg’ him bee they’d never seen themselv reprented on televisn before. Seth MacFarlane origally outled an episo which the fan-favoure character me out, but he scrapped , but later admted that Stewie is “almost certaly gay”. Tara’s ath the show’s sixth cycle led to wispread backlash among fans, who acced creator Joss Whedon of beg homophobic (so stupid).

The 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Rts is a tone for the gay-rights movement, one beg memorated wh everythg om paras to documentari.

10 MILTONE MOMENTS GAY TV HISTORY

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. 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. 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.

The fay wel her warmly, but as Beverly (out of drag) and Archie’s son--law, Mike, walk to the subway, they are btally attacked by gay bashers, who beat Beverly to ath.

WHEN HOLLYWOOD STUDS MARRIED OFF GAY STARS TO KEEP THEIR SEXUALY A SECRET

Mike eventually enurag Edh to be strong for her fay, but ’s clear her crisis of fah isn’t rolved when the closg creds Dallas, Soap (1977-1981)A young Billy Crystal played Jodie Dallas, one of the first recurrg gay characters on Amerin TV, this s send-up of daytime dramas. That mak Dallas noteworthy, even though gay groups at the time plaed that Dallas was a jumble of negative stereotyp about homosexualy.

Steven Carrgton, Dynasty (1981-1989)Dynasty helped lnch the glzy nighttime soap era of the 1980s, and Steve Carrgton was one of prime time’s first major gay characters as the son of tyon Blake Carrgton.

Corley once told Interview he was eager to play a a gay character, but that Steven ”has no humor" and suffers om “ever-shiftg sexual preferenc. When the show was revived for the 1991 miseri Dynasty: The Rnn, Steven was portrayed as openly gay and a stable relatnship. My So-Called Life also marked the first time an openly gay actor, Wilson Cz, played a gay character, givg Rickie a richer sense of thenticy.