Billy Crystal Portrayed First Openly Gay Ma Character on TV — si the 'Soap' Story

Contents:

• LBGTQ TV: A HISTORY OF GAY CHARACTERS, OM STONEWALL TO ‘BATWOMAN’
• TV'S GAY CHARACTERS, BEFORE AND AFTER ELLEN
• BILLY CRYSTAL PORTRAYED FIRST OPENLY GAY MA CHARACTER ON TV — SI THE 'SOAP' STORY

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

The 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Rts is a tone for the gay-rights movement, one beg memorated wh everythg om paras to documentari. 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. Six years later, Billy Crystal beme one of the first openly gay regular characters a seri “Soap, ” the broad ABC satire. Addnal breakthroughs followed seri like “Roseanne” and “Friends, ” eventually leadg to the gay uple “Morn Fay” a ago.

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. PBS also broke ground realy TV wh “An Amerin Fay, ” the 1973 seri that featured Lance Loud, whose g out ma him a gay in. 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.

TV'S GAY CHARACTERS, BEFORE AND AFTER ELLEN

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. Neverthels, work dramas ntued to ph boundari, cludg a gay teen ABC’s 1990s seri “My So-Called Life. The long-nng seri beme an archetype for many realy shows and 1994, "The Real World: San Francis" featured Pedro Zamora, the first HIV-posive, openly gay person to star on the show.

Zamora was open about his stat to his roommat and to the show's dience, brgg awarens and takg a step toward -stigmatizg the to the show, 1993, Zamora met Sean Sasser at the March on Washgton for equal rights for gay, lbian, and bisexual people, acrdg to Today. Ellen DeGener me out as gay on her s 1997, makg "Ellen" the first prime-time s to have a gay ma character. DeGener' character on the s "Ellen" me out as gay 1997, makg the show the first prime-time s to foc on a gay character.

Both sts of the "Queer Eye" anchise helped break down stigmas and stereotyp surroundg gay men.

BILLY CRYSTAL PORTRAYED FIRST OPENLY GAY MA CHARACTER ON TV — SI THE 'SOAP' STORY

"Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, " which origally aired om 2003 to 2007, was groundbreakg bee starred five openly gay men, known as the "Fab Five, " each wh very different personali and skills. It helped show that gay and straight men uld easily teract and llaborate 2018, the show was rebooted on Netflix as simply "Queer Eye, " and beme more clive, allowg anyone, spe their genr inty or sexualy to get a makeover.

A new "Fab Five" was also troduced, which was aga groundbreakg bee they were more diverse than their predomantly whe highly popular seri clus non-bary hairstylist Jonathan Van Ns, and gay dtry experts Tan France, Karamo Brown, Antoni Porowski, and Bobby Berk.

Rachel Maddow beme the first openly gay news anchor to host a prime-time show 2008.