Public opn about gay rights has shifted enormoly the Uned Stat over the past few s. What are some of the factors that have led to this historic change attus?
Contents:
- MORN FAY’S BIG, GAY (AND IMPORTANT) WEDDG
- 'MORN FAY' AND GAY MARRIAGE: IT'S COMPLITED
- 'ARTHUR' CHARACTER MR. RATBURN OUT AS GAY, GETS MARRIED SEASON PREMIERE
- HIDN BRA: AMERI'S CHANGG ATTUS TOWARD GAY PEOPLE
- ALABAMA PUBLIC TELEVISN REF TO AIR 'ARTHUR' EPISO WH GAY WEDDG
- 'ARTHUR' CREATOR DEFENDS GAY MARRIAGE EPISO FOLLOWG BACKLASH
- HGTV ON HULU: JT THE GAY COUPL, PLEASE!
MORN FAY’S BIG, GAY (AND IMPORTANT) WEDDG
In what is, at the most, a major moment televisn history and, at the very least, a quiet step forward for the marriage equaly movement, TV’s most award and send most-watched edy seri aired a gay the bate over the legalizatn of gay marriage makg headl on a daily basis, ’s hard not to read to the fact that 10. ” Ever sce Morn Fay accintally beme televisn’s go-to polil lightng rod, the show’s gay uple and the ton they’ve passed together on screen have llaterally bee bean’s of progrs when to what uld broadly be referred to as “acceptance” by the public at might argue that what two televisn characters do on a s should hardly be nsted as “important, ” but as we’ve long learned, polics and pop culture are often extribly tertwed. Now, ’s apparently OK for two guys to share that bed, ’s impossible to quantify how many words have been voted to the progrs—or, some opn, the lack thereof—when to pictg gay characters on mastream TV.
'MORN FAY' AND GAY MARRIAGE: IT'S COMPLITED
There are some who reject the ia that Mch and Cam, two characters who are broadly drawn and arguably perpetuate margalizg stereotyp of gay-ish character tras, are the unwtg poster gays for the equal-rights movement, at least some of the more uniated segments of the one thg that’s never been broadly drawn when to Mch and Cam, and much of this is owed to the warm chemistry between stars Jse Tyler Fergon and Eric Stontreet, is their love.
”From the time that Morn Fay’s brilliant pilot buted and Cam was thstg newly adopted Lily to the air while “Circle of Life” om The Ln Kg played the background—a geni moment one of the most perfect pilots om the last 10 years—Mch and Cam and their gayns were also thst forward, their every actn and even their mere existence, on a mastream seri stantly embraced by crics and viewers alike, was a gay love story that we actually jo the middle. There were no plots, as there ually are on work TV when gay characters are volved, about g to terms wh their own sexuali, g out of the closet, or nvcg their fai to love them.
'ARTHUR' CHARACTER MR. RATBURN OUT AS GAY, GETS MARRIED SEASON PREMIERE
It was the polil maniftatn of a Sefeld joke, reassurg voters that they don’t hate the gay muny—a verable “not that there’s anythg wrong wh that…”Then me the clamorg for what people wanted Mch and Cam to reprent, more than what they maybe actually did.
And that was, neglectg the fact that they were s characters, a “real” gay uple. And, fally, the petn to have them fally make legal (you know, once California, where the show tak place, ma so a legal gay marriage was actually possible) other words, this was a very special episo of the show, and a landmark episo of televisn, general.
”)There was also the edy of errors stemmg om the mismunitn between Mch and his father, Jay, who he thks isn’t on board wh the ia of the gay weddg but, of urse, uldn’t be more proud.
HIDN BRA: AMERI'S CHANGG ATTUS TOWARD GAY PEOPLE
Jay, a b obtely standg for the ntgent of Amerins who happily endorse gay marriage but don’t know the rrect or acceptable terms for discsg , keeps parg Mch and Cam’s ceremony to a “regular weddg. When the two men actually said “I do, ” the only thg borrg on a natural disaster was the flood of tears by the guts ’ve seen gay upl get married on TV before. ABCIn a slightly prsg lumn on sex and televisn earlier this week, Washgton Post TV cric Tom Shal sgled out Morn Fay for s portrayal of gay characters.
ALABAMA PUBLIC TELEVISN REF TO AIR 'ARTHUR' EPISO WH GAY WEDDG
The show, he said, "picts a gay-male marriage which both partners are rehgly dimensnal, believable human 're not flawed the silly, stereotypil ways that once domated such portrayals. " This statement highlights both how far Morn Fay has e—and how far still has to go when to gay upl Stontreet—the actor who plays Cam, one half of the uple Shal prais his lumn—told me he's proud that the show treats his character's fay like an equal rner of the three fai who make up Morn Fay's supportg triangle. He appreciat that the seri don't need to dwell obssively on the fact that the show portrays a lovg, healthy, stable fay head by two gay parents.
It's alright for the dience to know that gay upl kiss. But apparently, the lculatn is that, we're jt too jumpy to actually watch a very realistic middle-aged and half-overweight gay uple share even a relatively chaste smooch on the show walks an tertg le on qutns of gay inty and sometim miss out on opportuni to nont homophobia. Mch sisted the uple uldn't die the quake bee "if they fd the outfs 's gog to be very bad for the gays.
" It was a self-aware ltle le about the gay muny's own ternal bat about perceptn and reputatn. But acquired a sour note later the show when Nathan Lane showed up to portray an overdramatilly swishy stereotype of the kd Shal mend Morn Fay for wasn't the first time Morn Fay has mocked one kd of gay performance to showse the normaly of a gay fay.
'ARTHUR' CREATOR DEFENDS GAY MARRIAGE EPISO FOLLOWG BACKLASH
In a first-season episo, the characters assumed a iend of Jay, the fay patriarch, was gay bee of his mannerisms.
Her slip to a sual, homophobic teenage mdset isn't shockg. It's an example of the kds of promis straight Amerins make around sexual orientatn all the time, lovg fay or iends whout fully mtg to their stggl for legal and societal show ma a joke of Mch's rponse to perceived homophobia the earlit mut of the seri' premiere episo.
But if he'd been the room when Haley had her slip, the scene uld have validated his fears of homophobia—and challenged his extend fay—by revealg the gap between how much the Duphys love Mch, Cam and Lily, and how much they're still fluenced by larger societal views of gay importantly, there's a factual error Shal' asssment of Mch and Cam's relatnship: they aren't actually married, somethg Stontreet nfirmed for me. It's not a particularly radil thg to show a gay uple raisg a child together anymore. But at a time when equal marriage rights are a state-by-state battleground, Morn Fay might nsirg makg Cam, Mch, and Lily legally, as well as socially, equal wh the other fai on the 's no qutn that Morn Fay's gay fay is ft, well-sketched, funny and sweet.
HGTV ON HULU: JT THE GAY COUPL, PLEASE!
“MR RATBURN IS GAY??
Your move Marvel…, ” wrote Rachel Gie, the director of edorial at is not the first time the “Arthur” seri has featured a gay character.
” The anizatn c “Steven Universe, ” “Adventure Time” and “Loud Hoe” as some recent exampl of programmg that featur nuanced LGBTQ, featurg a gay marriage on a children’s televisn show remas revolutnary, acrdg to year, the s-old discsn over Bert and Ernie’s relatnship and sexual orientatn “Same Street” me to a standstill after Frank Oz, the creator of Bert, nied the character was gay.