Televisn has been val alterg perceptns on gay rights, perhaps more than wh any other social issue.
Contents:
- TV’S ACCEPTANCE OF GAY STORYL HAS BEEN A LONG TIME COMG
- "PEN15" HAS THE MOST PAFULLY AUTHENTIC GAY TEEN STORYLE I’VE EVER SEEN ON TV
- ‘ONCE UPON A TIME’ REVEALS GAY STORYLE; CREATORS SAY “LOVE IS LOVE”
TV’S ACCEPTANCE OF GAY STORYL HAS BEEN A LONG TIME COMG
Glee took Kurt through the wrger — everythg om an unacceptg parent to makg love wh another man to an unexpected hate crime — and betifully crafted Kurt's evolutn as an openly gay man. Though the show and the work were h wh some backlash for the 2017 storyle of Cys g out as gay to his iends and later datg a boy, broke ground for Disney Channel to feature a story of a stgglg teen who eventually out and be an openly gay character.
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.
"PEN15" HAS THE MOST PAFULLY AUTHENTIC GAY TEEN STORYLE I’VE EVER SEEN ON TV
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.
‘ONCE UPON A TIME’ REVEALS GAY STORYLE; CREATORS SAY “LOVE IS LOVE”
It was Cher-lovg Jack (Sean Hay) and alholic, right-wg sociale Karen (Megan Mullally) as much as Will (Eric McCormack) and Grace (Debra Msg) that enared Amerins to the sassy s, wh l like: “Commandment number one the gay bible: Thou shalt not vet my ex’s ass.
Adapted om gay director Jt Simien’s breakout film of the same name, about black llege stunts g to terms wh a “post-racial Ameri, ” the seri explor them of race, genr, and sexualy by skewerg jt about everyone for hypocrisy and double standards.