Darren Star: Showg Gay Characters '90210,' & 'Melrose Place' - Variety

Contents:

• EXCLIVE: WHO'S GAY ON 90210?
• '90210' EXCLIVE: THE REAL STORY BEHD TEDDY'S BIG GAY AWAKENG
• DARREN STAR ON THE STGGL OF SHOWG GAY CHARACTERS ‘90210,’ ‘MELROSE PLACE’
• GAY AND LBIAN CHARACTERS ARE POPPG UP ON SHOWS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
• GAYCHARACTER REVEALED?

EXCLIVE: WHO'S GAY ON 90210?

Will Christa be a gay-posive role mol — or is a bisexual high school cheerlear jt another male fantasy? — Gabrielle Carteris Has Been Married for Almost 30 YearsWh the 'BH90210' reboot approachg, many fans are wonrg whether star Gabrielle Carteris is gay. ETSource: GettyArticle ntu below advertisementSpecifilly, viewers of the origal seri are wonrg whether the 58-year-old pixie-cut-sportg star is gay, and who she's married to today.

Keep readg to fd InstagramArticle ntu below advertisementSo is Gabrielle Carteris gay? Dpe her short hair (and her but role CBS's Schoolbreak Special "What If I'm Gay? In the followg exclive terview, exec producer Rebec Sclair reveals when she realized Teddy preferred guys over gals, previews his first same-sex romance, and rells Donovan’s ial reactn upon learng that he’d be playg gay.

In a lot of ways I thk that’s more tertg than Teddy is a gay athlete, a gay famo guy’s son and a blon and hunky gay gentleman.

'90210' EXCLIVE: THE REAL STORY BEHD TEDDY'S BIG GAY AWAKENG

Did you know Teddy would be gay when he was first troduced? And I gus our ultimate goal would be to tell a whole range of stori that pict different facets of the issue of gayns—or non-straightns, you might say. Though, thankfully, we live an age where lots of teens are fortable wh their sexual orientatn and are able to e out when they’re high school or even before, we didn’t want to ignore the realy that for lots of kids the road to self-acceptance for a gay teenager isn’t easy.

And he’s worked hard to reprs whatever homosexual feelgs he’s had.

He plays Ian, a self-nfint, funny guy who is very much out and fortable wh his gayns. When did you rm Trevor that his character was gog to be gay? I thk he regnized that was a good opportuny as an actor and he was exced by the ia of tellg the story of a character’s journey that would mean a lot to gay teenagers and other teenagers who are learng to be hont about who they are and what they feel.

DARREN STAR ON THE STGGL OF SHOWG GAY CHARACTERS ‘90210,’ ‘MELROSE PLACE’

Gayle Abrams... Chris Gaylor... Kelly Vockel-Gaya...

How important was to tegrate gay characters to your storytellg?

I would thk, you live the world of realy, and beg gay felt meang. ” A gay character n’t hold hands wh his boyiend? Havg a gay character as a regular who wasn’t ashamed of his sexualy.

GAY AND LBIAN CHARACTERS ARE POPPG UP ON SHOWS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

All of our shows were not about the character beg gay.

We have gay relatnships, straight relatnships. As be more mon for teenagers to realize — and then tell others — that they are gay or lbian, there is also a growg number of teen characters on TV programs geared toward teens gog through the same thg.

24, jos the ranks of shows like “Glee, ” “Gossip Girl, ” “Pretty Ltle Liars, ” “Hellts, ” “Greek” and the new MTV seri “Sks” showsg young, gay rol. “I felt like the world of ‘90210’ was missg the gay characters that would realistilly have, ” said Rebec Sclair, the CW seri’ show nner and executive producer, on the wrers’ cisn to show teen character Teddy Montgomery’s g-out procs.

GAYCHARACTER REVEALED?

“If I had created the show, I would fely have ma one of the ma characters gay.. “Comg-out stori are standard, almost a cliché of televisn stori alg wh gay characters and this go back to the ‘70s and the ‘80s, ” said Larry Gross of USC’s Annenberg School for Communitn & Journalism, who specializ lbians and gays the media. “What’s probably different now is that the age is beg younger and I thk this reflects the fact that the sort of battleground for gay people society clus high school and probably even clus middle school.

The show has existed var eratns and over the years has moved om havg a ma character wh an olr gay brother to verg two male g-out story l, a lbian and a qutng character. Teen g-out stori seem pecially relevant, after reports of physil and cyber bullyg reached a boilg pot last year wh a number of gay teen suicis.

Jarrett Barrs, print of the Gay & Lbian Alliance Agast Defamatn, poted to the example of Kurt g out to his dad “Glee.