Longtime TV cric Dan Avery charts the history of gay, queer, and transgenr reprentatn popular Amerin seri om 1971 to today, om Ellen to Pose.
Contents:
- LBGTQ TV: A HISTORY OF GAY CHARACTERS, OM STONEWALL TO ‘BATWOMAN’
- 14 TV SHOWS THAT BROKE GROUND WH GAY AND TRANSGENR CHARACTERS
- 10 MILTONE MOMENTS GAY TV HISTORY
LBGTQ TV: A HISTORY OF GAY CHARACTERS, OM STONEWALL TO ‘BATWOMAN’
* historical tv shows with gay characters *
Mike eventually enurag Edh to be strong for her fay, but ’s clear her crisis of fah isn’t rolved when the closg creds Dallas, Soap (1977-1981)A young Billy Crystal played Jodie Dallas, one of the first recurrg gay characters on Amerin TV, this s send-up of daytime dramas.
Steven Carrgton, Dynasty (1981-1989)Dynasty helped lnch the glzy nighttime soap era of the 1980s, and Steve Carrgton was one of prime time’s first major gay characters as the son of tyon Blake Carrgton. ’”Ellen Man, Ellen (1994-1998)Every gay person of a certa age remembers where they were when Ellen’s “The Puppy Episo” aired 1997—the two-parter that saw Ellen DeGener’s character e out as a lbian, cidg wh the edian’s own real-life g out. Ultimately, the equent aths of LGBTQ characters on TV lead to anized cricism of what was dubbed the “bury your gays” Tman, Will & Grace (1998-2006)Jack McFarland (Sean Hay) got the big lghs on this top-rated NBC s, but Will Tman (Eric McCormack) was the ground unterpot to Jack’s flamboyance.
14 TV SHOWS THAT BROKE GROUND WH GAY AND TRANSGENR CHARACTERS
Gay characters the post-Stonewall era go a lot wir and eper than ‘Will & Grace’ and ‘Ellen.’ * historical tv shows with gay characters *
” Brian Kney, Queer as Folk (2000-2005)If Will Tman showed Ameri that gay men uld be more than jt their sexualy, Gale Harold’s Brian Kney was a vorac sexual beg wh ltle e for social nventns. “Shane was the only non-femme ma character, and seeg her have ternal stggl that weren’t jt about beg gay was so important to queer kids, ” Jacquele Toboni, who -starred wh Moeng on the 2019 reboot The L Word: Generatn Q, told Vogue.
The character was later rurrected, and Will has regularly appeared on Days of Our Liv and s spoff Peack seri, Beyond Burset, Orange Is the New Black (2013-2019)By the send of the 21st century, gay and lbian reprentatn was fairly entrenched on televisn, but trans people were still largely visible. 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.
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.
10 MILTONE MOMENTS GAY TV HISTORY
To celebrate this tone queer visibily, we looked back over the past three s and round up the 30 most inic LGBTQ characters TV history, om loveable gay uple Mchell and Cameron to trans trailblazers like Sophia Burset. Even though Jack McFarland’s character has received a mixed receptn for perpetuatg gay stereotyp, he’s one of the longt nng and most inic queer characters on televisn, appearg ten seasons and 188 episos of Will & Grace to date. But most importantly he is the glue that holds together a group of men who all re for each other when most openg gay Black characters often are suated among a group of whe characters.