TV's gay characters, before and after Ellen

Contents:

• LBGTQ TV: A HISTORY OF GAY CHARACTERS, OM STONEWALL TO ‘BATWOMAN’
• 10 MILTONE MOMENTS GAY TV HISTORY
• WATCH: TV'S FIRST GAY WEDDG IS A PERFECT SUMMATN OF HOW FAR AMERI HAS E
• TV'S GAY CHARACTERS, BEFORE AND AFTER ELLEN

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.

10 MILTONE MOMENTS GAY TV HISTORY

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.

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. In , a gay male uple live secret until one of the man’s sons disvers his father’s relatnship.

WATCH: TV'S FIRST GAY WEDDG IS A PERFECT SUMMATN OF HOW FAR AMERI HAS E

That Certa Summer has sce been praised for portrayg gay characters a sympathetic manner, and was very well received. In Morn Fay, Cameron Tucker (Eric Stontreet) and Mchell Prchett (Jse Fergon) are a gay uple who have ma a fay wh their dghter. 1/48CBS1971: All the FayAll the Fay ma LGBT history when troduced the first gay character primetime 1971, revealg that Archie Bunker's bar buddy Steve was gay.

4/48YouTube1975: Hot l BalmoreThe Norman Lear s starrg Jam Cromwell, Charlotte Rae and Conchata Ferrell had perhaps the first pictn of a gay uple on an Amerin TV seri. The character was divisive at the time—early plots had him wantg to bee a woman, he dated several women—but ultimately he was primetime TV's first gay dad. 8/48FOX1991: RocOne of Fox's first shows, Roc, was the first to have a gay weddg on TV.

TV'S GAY CHARACTERS, BEFORE AND AFTER ELLEN

In a "very special episo, " Roc fds out his uncle is gay and has a partner. 10/481992: One Life to LiveIn 1992, the world met One Life to Live's Billy Douglas, played by a young Ryan Phillippe, the first gay teen character on daytime TV.

12/48ABC1994: My So-Called LifeWhile One Life to Live had s first gay teen 1992, primetime's first openly gay teen seri regular character me to My So-Called Life's Enrique "Rickie" Vasquez, played by Wilson Cz. 15/481997: Ellen"The Puppy Episo" of Ellen featured Ellen Man (Ellen DeGener) g out as gay, the same time the star me out on the ver of Time magaze, makg Ellen the first show to feature an openly lbian actrs playg an openly lbian character. 18/48WB1999: Dawson's CreekWhile lbian kiss beme a ratgs ploy for shows, TV's first "romantic" gay kiss didn't happen until 1999 on The WB.

22/48CBS2007: As the World TurnsMen were kissg primetime long before daytime fally got on board, but the soaps ught up 2007 when As the World Turns featured the first-ever gay kiss between two male characters, Le Snyr (Van Hansis) and Noah Mayer (Jake Silbermann).