Contents:
- DAVID FISHER ON ‘SIX FEET UNR’ WAS ONE OF THE FIRST THREE-DIMENSNAL PORTRAYALS OF A GAY MAN ON MASTREAM TELEVISN
- THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985
DAVID FISHER ON ‘SIX FEET UNR’ WAS ONE OF THE FIRST THREE-DIMENSNAL PORTRAYALS OF A GAY MAN ON MASTREAM TELEVISN
This week, we pse on one of HBO’s greatt shows, Six Feet Unr, which featur one of the most fully realized gay male characters ever seen on televisn, David Fisher, played by Michael C. Premierg as did after The Sopranos and provg HBO’s swaggerg arrival to prtige TV was no fle, Alan Ball’s melancholy medatn on ath, mental illns, and sexualy, neverthels always felt, as David Fisher himself, like the dutiful, kda gay, and oft-ignored middle child HBO’s ey; Six Feet Unr th lived (and died) the shadow of s more popular and charismatic olr brother.
The first scene, which tak place at an ATM, tablish the easy timacy of a young gay uple before a tr of men (“You thk you n do offensive sh like that public? In rewatchg “A Private Life” preparatn for today’s post I had to stop myself om jottg down every le the gay-related scen. Here we wns the way difference towards the LGBT muny, and an unwillgns to speak about homosexualy particular, is jt as damagg as the srit spectre of gay life: AIDS.
Marc’s body, brought to Fisher & Sons to be readied for viewg later that week, prompts David to face his own closeted homosexualy, seeg Marc’s ghost a remr of his own ner mons:. Next Week: We talked at length about how 1998 was a pretty gay year for HBO, but was also marked by tragedy (not unlike that picted "A Private Life"): the horrific murr of Matthew Shepard shook the natn October that year and we will get to talk about that episo at length when we look at The Laramie Project. It was an accurate portrayal of feelgs many gay men, pecially om a prev era, perhaps experienced.
THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985
Was any of this abe om his father bee of the fact that Keh was gay?
The fact that he was a gay man surely add to his already existg anger issu but they weren’t the nucls of the problem. A young gay man, Marc Foster Jr, was murred simply for the fact that he was gay, and his body me to Fisher and Sons.
We saw David tell his mother that he was gay, as awkward and appropriately funny as was. No, the life of a gay man isn’t an easy one but the ghost of Marc Foster Jr walked step by step wh David as he took the steps he need to fally live eely and openly, to qu pretendg that he was a versn of himself that his md, other people wanted him to be.