How The Wire's Omar Star Fought For Gay Reprentatn In The HBO Show

Contents:

• MICHAEL K. WILLIAMS PHED FOR MORE GAY INTIMACY ON ‘THE WIRE’: ‘YOU KNOW GAY PEOPLE F*CK, RIGHT?’
• OMAR LTLE ON ‘THE WIRE’ WAS ONE OF TV’S FIRST GAY SUPERHERO
• MICHAEL K. WILLIAMS PHED FOR MORE TIMATE GAY SCEN FOR OMAR ON THE WIRE: 'WE SHOULD GO ALL '
• OMAR LTLE IS THE GAY STICK-UP MAN WHO ROBS DG ALERS FOR A LIVG THE WIRE
• HOW THE WIRE'S OMAR STAR FOUGHT FOR GAY REPRENTATN IN THE HBO SHOW
• MICHAEL K. WILLIAMS ON ‘THE WIRE’: I WANTED MORE GAY SCEN FOR OMAR
• HOW THE WIRE’S OMAR LTLE CHALLENGED GAY STEREOTYP MEDIA

MICHAEL K. WILLIAMS PHED FOR MORE GAY INTIMACY ON ‘THE WIRE’: ‘YOU KNOW GAY PEOPLE F*CK, RIGHT?’

The “Lovecraft Country” and “Boardwalk Empire” actor portrayed gay dg aler Omar “The Wire” om 2002 to 2008. “As for Omar’s homosexualy, was groundbreakg 20 years ago, and I adm that at first I was sred to play a gay character, ” Williams penned an excerpt om his memoir “Scen From My Life” -thored wh Jon Sternfeld, via Vulture. “I thk my ial fear of Omar’s sexualy me om my upbrgg, the muny that raised me, and the stubborn stereotyp of gay characters.

Sce Omar was the “oppose of the stereotypil hood typ, ” Williams phed “The Wire” productn to showse all facets of Omar’s life onscreen, cludg his gay relatnships. I thk the directors were sred, and I said to one of them, ‘You know gay people fuck, right? I remember readg articl (that’s what we ed to ll thkpiec, child) the queer prs eagerly applyg that sipid and blandly normalizg phrase “who happens to be gay” to Omar, as if were a prize medal.

OMAR LTLE ON ‘THE WIRE’ WAS ONE OF TV’S FIRST GAY SUPERHERO

In season one, for example, dg-aler Avon Barksdale puts a price on Omar’s head – and upon learng that Omar is gay, promptly doubl . It was that the show never treated the outward signs of gayns as somethg Rickie should be ashamed of, or as thgs the dience should take as symbols for gayns wr-large.

There was a specificy to the character that allowed him to move beyond the kd of didacticism "very special episos" featurg gay characters had long been rced to. Through all, she blew up suffotg gay stereotyp. Buffy The Vampire Slayer didn't portray her as broken or wicked bee she was gay, but bee she was pa, and a pa that dienc uld unrstand stead of judge.

When Ellen Man says, "I'm gay" to an airport gate microphone, what she was really sayg was, "You loved me five mut ago, and I'm still the same person. For me, Jack's refal to be anythg but himself, to give anyone the power to huiate him, was credibly powerful to watch not only as a small gay child, but as a medium-sized gay adult too. "I celebrate T Andromedon: a fat, femme, gay Black man, who liv unflchgly and joyfully his every moment onscreen.

MICHAEL K. WILLIAMS PHED FOR MORE TIMATE GAY SCEN FOR OMAR ON THE WIRE: 'WE SHOULD GO ALL '

We n never unrtimate the importance of seeg gay, lbian, bi, trans, asexual, tersex and genr nonnformg people on TV. For those who didn't realize they knew a gay person real life, Will was their gateway to nnectg wh the LGBTQ+ muny.

Hall Episos: 63 (2001 - 2005) "David was one of the first three-dimensnal portrayals of a gay man on mastream televisn. Uptight, fty, and exceptnally private, David's gay inty certaly rmed his character, but wasn't the entirety of -- a rary for the early days of prtige televisn.

Williams, Omar reprents the transn om the sexls sats of gay TV past to the flawed, plited characters who n simply exist. Kurt Hummel Show: Glee Performer: Chris Colfer Episos: 121 (2009 - 2015) Ryan Murphy's visn for Glee clud, among many (MANY) other thgs, takg on issu of gay acceptance and teen bullyg, and while not the only gay character on the show, Kurt was the vsel through which Murphy's msag were most often livered.

OMAR LTLE IS THE GAY STICK-UP MAN WHO ROBS DG ALERS FOR A LIVG THE WIRE

Kurt's teen romance wh Blae (Darren Criss) was the first full-blown gay teen romance that fans uld 'ship the same way they did for Joey/Pacey and Seth/Summer. That Tumblr-iendly fan-thiasm for a gay uple would have been unfathomable on a work seri even five years prr, makg Kurt a bean of changg tim. Jodie Dallas Show: Soap Performer: Billy Crystal Episos: 76 (1977 - 1981) As the first long-nng gay character televisn, Jodie Dallas paved the way for every other character on this list.

Jodie's creatn was ght wh cricism om both sis, though, as relig and gay rights groups objected to Soap's handlg of gay them. Relig groups didn't want the s to clu gay them at all and they anized a boytt of the show before even aired.

HOW THE WIRE'S OMAR STAR FOUGHT FOR GAY REPRENTATN IN THE HBO SHOW

The Gay Media Task Force was upset wh the show's nflagratn of gay men and trans people Jodie's ial storyle.

Still, Soap kept up a "tell, don't show" pictn of Jodie's sexualy throughout his many years on televisn, makg sure that viewers always knew he was gay... Lafayette Reynolds Show: Te Blood Performer: Nelsan Ellis Episos: 81 (2008 - 2014) Wh the stereotyp of Sassy Black Friend and Sassy Gay Friend still alive and well popular culture, the character of Lafayette was ripe for tokenism.

Max Blum Show: Happy Endgs Performer: Adam Pally Episos: 57 (2011 - 2013) It's a shame Happy Endgs only held on for three seasons, bee Adam Pally's gmpy, lazy, and slouchy gay man was unlike any other gay character a work s.

MICHAEL K. WILLIAMS ON ‘THE WIRE’: I WANTED MORE GAY SCEN FOR OMAR

Max perfectly bed the stock gay character wh the "nnivg smart-ass" archetype that's sential to ensemble edi.

For once, the gay character got to do real s dirty work stead of teachg others lsons about tolerance. But Max wasn't a gay character that "jt so happened to be gay. Jt Suarez Show: Ugly Betty Performer: Mark Inlito Episos: 85 (2006 - 2010) That work televisn featured a tweenage (and later teenage) gay kid a way that never felt like he was beg ma fun of was a great step forward.

HOW THE WIRE’S OMAR LTLE CHALLENGED GAY STEREOTYP MEDIA

Bian Montgomery Show: All My Children Performer: En Riegel (primarily) Episos: 1988 - 2013 Gay characters the realm of daytime drama always had an uphill climb, given that their mographic was always olr and, as a rult, more nservative. Which mak the pneerg gay soap characters so important.

Bian's importance to gay TV characters went beyond the ton (daytime's first same-sex kiss 2003; daytime's first legal same-sex weddg 2008); she not only forced Eri Kane to grapple wh her prejudic, but she did the same for the All My Children dience. Salvatore Romano Show: Mad Men Performer: Bryan Batt Episos: 39 (2007 - 2009) Through s warts-and-all portrayal of cy-life the 1960s, Mad Men livered a statement about gay life the pre-Stonewall era: Men remaed closeted, or they suffered the nsequenc. Patrick Episos: 63 (2001 - 2005) A Wt Pot grad and openly gay policeman, Keh Charl fied pretty much every pop culture stereotype of a gay character durg the early days of LGBT reprentatn.