Gays on TV | PBS NewsHour

Contents:

• GAYS ON TV
• 12 POPULAR CHILDREN’S TV SHOWS THAT HAVE GAY CHARACTERS
• OH YOU SILLY THG, OF COURSE HE’S GAY

GAYS ON TV

A day after Massachetts' hight urt l agast the ban on same-sex marriag, Terence Smh exam the proliferatn -- and populary -- of gay and lbian-oriented televisn shows, and what this new trend Amerin televisn suggts about public attus toward homosexualy.

Now shootg s fourth season, the provotive seri about gay and lbian characters als wh sensive issu such as AIDS, promiscuo sex and dg this scene, muny members discs a rash of gay, "Queer as Folk": Who do you thk will e nng? What "Queer as Folk" did was change the perceptn of not only gay people, but gay characters on televisn. It had never been done before, a drama about gay people, and I thk we were very … I thk we were very sred at the begng.

Prevly there had been gay characters who were always supportg characters — you know, the bt iend, the neighbor, whatever. They sort of played to the stereotyp of what people perceived gay people as.

12 POPULAR CHILDREN’S TV SHOWS THAT HAVE GAY CHARACTERS

"Queer as Folk, " which is set Ptsburgh, but shot on lotn here Toronto, is a breakthrough broadst two rpects: It's attracted a large crossover dience that clus many straight young women; and picts s gay and lbian characters as livg full liv, profsnally and, "Queer as Folk": Don't expect too much. The broadst is a forenner one of the more dramatic new trends Amerin televisn: An explosn of programs on work and ble that featur gay and lbian characters and them. This season there are some 20 seri, dramas or realy shows, that feature gay and lbian ble work Bravo ma a splash recently wh s realy show "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, " which a team of gay men mak over athetilly challenged straight KRESSLEY, "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy": You only have two pairs of pants your whole closet!

OH YOU SILLY THG, OF COURSE HE’S GAY

ABC's new edy "It's All Relative" featur a gay uple a 20-year relatnship who are fathers to a llege-aged dghter. HBO's "Six Feet Unr" featur a biracial gay uple. It won 16 Emmy nomatns recently, more than any other, "Six Feet Unr": It's not like they're not gog to know that we're gay.

In addn, "In the Life, " a nonfictn magaze show about gays and lbians, has been nng on PBS for 11 years. And "Will & Grace" on NBC, now s fifth season, shows two gay characters and is the third-most-watched s on work televisn. Social scientists see this proliferatn of gay and lbian-themed televisn as reflective of a broar societal trend.

Suzanna Walters is the director of women's studi at Geetown Universy and thor of "All the Rage: The Story of Gay Visibily Ameri. The optns for lbians and gays ten, 15 years ago was eher plete visibily or awful, heo, you know, vic stereotyp.

There's been this, you know, sea change our culture, where gays and lbians have entered to the sort of popular imagatn mastream televisn, work and ble televisns, films, advertisg. The timated 6 to 7 percent of the adult populatn Ameri that intifi self as gay, lbian, bisexual, or transgenr has a llective buyg power timated at $485 billn a year.

W Combs tracks gay and lbian trends as print of Weck-Combs, a public relatns and advertisg firm. We have not seen any what I would nsir hont portrayals of the homosexual liftyle on televisn at least 20 gays nsistently are portrayed as the loyal iend, the most self-sacrificg person, even the most morally upstandg person.

So the public is gettg this nstant picture of gay life as somethg exemplary. The ntroversy over gay and lbian-oriented programmg the U. Is ls evince Canada, where PriVisn, a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week, all-gay channel has been on the air for two Canadian statn is advertisg-supported, but reli on subscriber fe as well.