ABC shows the pri and diversy of this year’s Sydney Gay and Lbian Mardi Gras | About the ABC

Contents:

• WHERE ARE ALL THE GAY CHARACTERS ON ASIE TV? IS TE ‘GAY DON’T RATE’? FOUR SIRS WEIGH
• TRACY GRIMSHAW PERSONAL LIFE; MARRIED, GAY, FAY, SALARY
• ABC SHOWS THE PRI AND DIVERSY OF THIS YEAR’S SYDNEY GAY AND LBIAN MARDI GRAS

WHERE ARE ALL THE GAY CHARACTERS ON ASIE TV? IS TE ‘GAY DON’T RATE’? FOUR SIRS WEIGH

AUSTRALIAN televisn broke remarkable new ground 1972 by layg claim to the world’s first homosexual character a drama Sale was rponsible for creatg the boundary phg Number 96, about a un block filled wh an array of lourful rints, cludg the openly gay Don Flayson. “And at a time when homosexualy was illegal, ” Sale sce then, there’s been only a handful of meangful exampl of gays and lbians on the small screen. Sale believ the dtry is far ls progrsive today - and he’s not is there a reluctance to clu homosexual characters mastream shows?

Is the adage that “gay don’t rate” really te? And what’s like to be gay and work an dtry unwillg to reprent people like you?

TRACY GRIMSHAW PERSONAL LIFE; MARRIED, GAY, FAY, SALARY

Four gay and lbian creativ Atralian TV share their personal and profsnal WALKER - WRITERWHEN veteran TV wrer and script producer Sarah Walker was told that no one wanted to see gay people on the small screen prime time, she was jt as a lbian, but as a voted storyteller who believ the power of characters who reflect Atralia’s diverse was workg on a mastream drama when she wrote a same-sex relatnship to the script. When aired, a storm of ntroversy epted and “everyone at the work eaked out” the aftermath, the wrers were told that there was never to be another gay storyle the show.

“I was told there was to be no mentn of gays and lbians on the show — no referenc at all.

”The strange nundm of TV is that attus like this n exist an dtry that employs many gay people. “The big drkg, blokey world at the top of the food cha, they work hand--hand wh the gays. They probably feel gayns and creativy go together — that ’s jt an expectatn creative typ are sometim gay.

ABC SHOWS THE PRI AND DIVERSY OF THIS YEAR’S SYDNEY GAY AND LBIAN MARDI GRAS

“However there’s a big difference between acceptg they have to work wh gay people and beg fortable wh seeg that on screens. It was the famed Number 96 — rponsible for the world’s first gay character a drama — that she veloped an tert TV, and her first csh. “I’m generally not allowed to plot gay characters or gay stori shows — not to the extent that I’d like to anyway.

”Although she pots out the long-nng soap Neighbours has had several gay characters recent are some tricky logistics havg gay characters, she explas. If you take two of your prec st and make them gay, you’ve got two girls or two guys on the other si who now don’t have anyone to partner up wh.

It was about to tackle a major gay the last mute, she had to bow out of the project due to a schlg nflict. “Take Wentworth, where there are so many different, plex and multi-layered characters — gay, straight, transgenr, dark antihero, challengg villas, a b of light and sha, ” Wilkson says. Commercial works don’t seem too willg to ph the envelope, particularly when to gay characters.