Watch: TV's first gay weddg is a perfect summatn of how far Ameri has e - Vox

Contents:

• LGBT REPRENTATN ON TV THROUGH THE AG – OM EASTENRS’ FIRST GAY KISS TO TRANSGENR SUPERHERO
• 10 MILTONE MOMENTS GAY TV HISTORY
• GROUNDBREAKG ON-SCREEN GAY KISS THROUGH HISTORY
• WATCH: TV'S FIRST GAY WEDDG IS A PERFECT SUMMATN OF HOW FAR AMERI HAS E
• 14 TV SHOWS THAT BROKE GROUND WH GAY AND TRANSGENR CHARACTERS

LGBT REPRENTATN ON TV THROUGH THE AG – OM EASTENRS’ FIRST GAY KISS TO TRANSGENR SUPERHERO

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. 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. 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).

While we may now take for granted the prence of queer figureheads on TV, ls than 30 years ago the mere prence of someone intifyg as gay uld send viewers to a tailsp, pecially as beg gay – or gay marriage – was illegal. For ’s Pri Week, we’ve looked back through the years of LGBT relatnships on TV, celebratg landmark moments and trailblazg shownners who fied the odds to get the sential scen on air while startg to break down homophobia and transphobia the procs. It happened between Col Rsell (Michael Cashman) and his romantic other half Guido Smh (Nicholas Donovan) – after years of character Col beg out and gay on the seri.

10 MILTONE MOMENTS GAY TV HISTORY

The first lbian kiss beme so inic aired as part of the 2012 Olympic ceremony (Picture: Channel 4)Brooksi’s 1994 lbian kiss between Beth (Anna Friel) and Margaret (Nila Stephenson) is often ced as the first UK gay kiss, but unfortunately they were five years late. The moment was so inic, even managed to land a place a montage for the2012 London Olympic Openg Ceremony – airg across the world cludg untri where homosexualy was illegal. In 1994, realy TV show The Real World: San Francis broke some ser ground whout even meang to when gay uple Sean Sasser and Pedro Zamora held a mment ceremony to each other live on air.

Starrg Aidan Gillan, Charlie Hunnam and Craig Kelly – Queer As Folk beme groundbreakg telly part to s no-holds-barred look at life and sex on the Manchter gay scene.

Lnched by Rsell T Davi, Queer as Folk aired at a turng pot time for homosexualy and acceptance, wh the ernment that same year lowerg the age of nsent for gay sex down to 16, the same as heterosexual sex. While there was fely some problematic elements to the show, still showed beg gay a much more well-round, ls stereotypil light than before, and was one of the first major seri to lead off three gay characters. First havg a heterosexual relatnship wh Oz (Seth Green), Willow veloped feelgs and relatnship wh young wch Tara (Amber Benson), before g out as gay to her iends.

GROUNDBREAKG ON-SCREEN GAY KISS THROUGH HISTORY

They later went on to get married and adopt a send child, but this was the first time on a major s that the ncept of adoptn, and raisg a fay a gay hoehold, was tly displayed at length. In April 2019, rerd label drama Empire aired the first ever gay black weddg on work TV, wh Jamal Lyons (Jsie Smollett) tyg the knot to Kai Givens (Toby Onwumere). David and Keh's romance helps enpsulate what was like livg as a gay person the early 2000's, and shows how sometim posive change happens and Keh fight untls tim throughout the seri and break up, but always end up g back together.

It was a major step visibily to see an terracial gay relatnship on televisn, and the two grow together and start their own fay throughout Six Feet Unr's five seasons on the air. The seri revolved around a group of black gay men livg Los Angel, and promently featured issu facg that muny, cludg datg, same-sex parenthood, HIV and AIDS awarens, and homophobia.

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

A lot n change 40 the Fay, the classic s about lovable bigot Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor) broke all sorts of "TV taboos" cludg havg the first gay character primetime.

14 TV SHOWS THAT BROKE GROUND WH GAY AND TRANSGENR CHARACTERS

Now we have How to Get Away Wh Murr pictg que a few (racy) sex scen between two men, and producer Shonda Rhim layg down the law that if anyone plas about "gay scen" on TV, they not only don't need to watch her shows, they are "not ved to the party. It may appear quat now, when we have TV seri like Hulu’s Love, Victor (about a Latx teen explorg sexual fluidy) or Netflix’s Bondg (about sex work and alternative sexualy), but the great gay panic set off by Ellen DeGener g out on her s 1997 was a bombshell that didn’t necsarily nvce the works that they’d open the gat to LGBTQ experienc. Luckily Will & Grace buted 1998 and the groundbreakg NBC seri nvced many that gay people might not be so toxic (and wouldn’t sre off advertisers) — so much so that Vice Print Joe Bin later creded wh changg his md about same-sex marriage.

Dpe the fact that lns of Amerins wnsed two men raise a happy and healthy dghter om the fort of their livg room sofas, took a fan mpaign to lobby Disney-owned ABC to fally allow Mchell (gay actor Jse Tyler Fergon) and Cameron (straight actor Eric Stontreet) to kiss ( fally happened 2010).

For years, ranged, perverse, and spible homosexuals were on full display — pecially om Ryan Murphy, who remas our most proment culture czar when to queer characters on TV. From the Roy Cohn-flected Army-McCarthy heargs — which was the first time many people heard the word “homosexual” uttered on TV — through the “don’t ask, don’t tell” Neti, that clud The Goln Girls and Digng Women, to our current glter-and-glam era of RuPl’s Drag Race and almost-anythg-go pansexualy.