Joe Bin Says 'Will and Grace' Helped Change Public Opn on Gay Rights - WSJ

Contents:

• 'I WOULDN'T GET THIS ROLE TODAY': WILL & GRACE'S STRAIGHT 'GAY' STAR
• ‘WILL & GRACE’ FANS ARE STILL UNSURE IF ERIC MCCORMACK IS GAY REAL LIFE
• WILL AND GRACE STAR CONFIRMS HE’S GAY
• WILL & GRACE BROKE GROUND FOR GAY REPRENTATN—CAN IT DO IT AGA?
• UGANDA'S LGBTQ MUNY IS ' SHOCK' OVER NEW MEASURE, GAY ACTIVIST SAYS
• JOE BIN SAYS 'WILL AND GRACE' HELPED CHANGE PUBLIC OPN ON GAY RIGHTS

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

TV Seri1998–2020TV-PG22mGay lawyer Will and straight terr signer Grace share a New York Cy apartment.

Their bt iends are gleeful and proud gay Jack and charismatic, filthy-rich, amoral sociale lawyer Will and straight terr signer Grace share a New York Cy apartment.

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

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.

WILL AND GRACE STAR CONFIRMS HE’S GAY

"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. "But do that mean that now when you walk to a stg room you have to state whether you are straight or gay?

"The show has given me a chance to give back, " he says, cg some recent gay-related chary events at which he has appeared.

Everyone remembers the basics: bt iends Will, a gay man, and Grace, a straight woman, live and love Manhattan wh their quirkier iends Jack and Karen. Mutchnick and Eisenberg dated real life, and then beme close iends after Mutchnick revealed he was gay.

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

Actor Sean Hay, who portrayed openly gay character Jack on Will & Grace, didn't e out real life until five years after the show end. 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.

“Will & Grace, ” which ran on NBC om 1998 to 2006, brought two charmg gay men to lns of Amerin livg rooms — the first gay leads on a h s history.

UGANDA'S LGBTQ MUNY IS ' SHOCK' OVER NEW MEASURE, GAY ACTIVIST SAYS

28, what n s impact be, a world where gay marriage is legal, and New York Cy’s Pri para sponsors clu T-Mobile, Walmart and the Walt Disney Co.? 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.

Will and Jack were que different gay men, and the Fab 5 ‘Queer Eye’ were all que different. ” Their work appeared Newsweek before eher of the studi was mimizg homophobia was never the tentn of “Will & Grace” creators Max Mutchnick and David Kohan. ”Amerins tend to be far more faiar wh gay people now than they were durg the show’s ial n.

And Eric is faiar wh what means to play such a public and beloved gay character on the screen. 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).

JOE BIN SAYS 'WILL AND GRACE' HELPED CHANGE PUBLIC OPN ON GAY RIGHTS

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. "I didn't have the tools at such a young age to al wh the ramifitns of g out as gay a huge public way. Hay didn't publicly e out as a gay man until 2010, four years after Will & Grace wrapped s ial n.

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 fact, when the show was first pched, the ia was that would revolve around three sets of upl, one of whom was a gay man and a straight woman who lived together.