From gay pirat and lbian baseball players to queer vampir and ballroom legends, this was a hugely entertag year for LGBTQ+ TV.
Contents:
- QUEER & GAY BERL: YOUR GUI FOR LGBTQ+ BERL
- 'WE'RE NOT HIDG': GAY AND LBIAN RSIANS SAY A CULTURAL SHIFT IS UNRWAY
QUEER & GAY BERL: YOUR GUI FOR LGBTQ+ BERL
* gay and lesbian shows *
It has also, perhaps most importantly, been a platform to tell stori that have ma gay, lbian, bisexual, trans, queer, tersex, and more people feel ls alone the world – to know there is a big and varied muny to which they belong. They did so by beg the first work superhero TV show wh an LGBTQ+ lead (actrs and character), as is the se of the CW’s Batwoman, or featurg some of the earlit recurrg gay characters on Amerin TV, like Vcent Schiavelli’s Peter Panama on the short-lived The Corner Bar, or Billy Crystal’s Jodie Dallas on Soap.
In this sectn you’ll also fd the first Disney Channel show to feature a gay ma character (Andi Mack), the first animated show to feature a same-sex marriage proposal (Steven Universe), and Pose, which broke ground wh s diverse, largely transgenr st, and for beg the seri on which Ja Mock beme the first transgenr woman of lor to direct and wre an episo of televisn.
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.
'WE'RE NOT HIDG': GAY AND LBIAN RSIANS SAY A CULTURAL SHIFT IS UNRWAY
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.
In that way, ’s breakg siar ground to the Sundance Now seri This Close, om af actors Shoshannah Stern and Josh Feldman, about a straight woman and gay man who are bti lookg for love and unrstandg. And while the seri received as much hate mail as adoratn — an evable byproduct of beg the first show to have openly gay male lead characters — lasted eight seasons before endg 2006.