Support your children if they are gay, pope tells parents | Rters

Contents:

• HOW ‘LOVE, VICTOR’ CAPTUR ONE PARENT’S STGGLE TO ACCEPT HER GAY SON (EXCLUSIVE)
• 14 TV SHOWS THAT BROKE GROUND WH GAY AND TRANSGENR CHARACTERS
• SUPPORT YOUR CHILDREN IF THEY ARE GAY, POPE TELLS PARENTS
• MY CATHOLIC KID IS GAY! NOW WHAT??
• NUMBER ONE GAY SON

HOW ‘LOVE, VICTOR’ CAPTUR ONE PARENT’S STGGLE TO ACCEPT HER GAY SON (EXCLUSIVE)

The experience of puberty, or fallg love for the first time, or fdg a date for the prom, or knowg what you like, or knowg who strik your fancy… fact that he’s a young gay kid experiencg all the normal r of passage really lights me.

If you want to measure how far TV reprentatns of queer people have e sce Will & Grace’s attractive gay leads spent entire seasons whout any romantic actn, please note that on ABC’s new s The Real O’Neals, only six episos elapse between 16-year-old Kenny O’Neal’s g out and his first gay date… before the season is over, Kenny will have his first gay kiss and go to prom wh a boy. The ia of a gay son sndalizg a nservative Irish-Catholic fay — and turng out to be the least of the skeletons s closet — don’t feel as novel as once might have. Kenny knows he’s gay, but n’t brg himself to break the news to anyone — cludg his mom and girliend — spe the urgg of that fantasy male mol he se the mirror to e on out.

14 TV SHOWS THAT BROKE GROUND WH GAY AND TRANSGENR CHARACTERS

Creded to a quartet of wrers, and directed by s veteran Todd Holland, “The Real O’Neals” has the feelg of a show that began wh a foundatn Savage’s realy — which spired him to champn the “It Gets Better” Project, a public-service mpaign reachg out to gay teens, who are at a higher risk of suici — before takg several more s-iendly turns along the way. Yet the tth is that “Real O’Neals” don’t appear any edgier than “Morn Fay” (the long-nng h that ABC will e to help try to troduce the seri, advance of s regular Tuday time slot) preachg acceptance wh a fay ntext, or any number of shows that explore teenage sexualy, gay or straight.

In that regard, every ltle b helps, and for gay teens, the normalizg aspects of somethg like “The Real O’Neals” is surely another step toward mastream acceptance. ABC has renewedThe Real O'Neals, the s about an Irish Catholic Chigo fay wh a gay son, for a send season spe the efforts of right-wg groups that had nounced the show as anti-Christian and excsively Milln Moms, a project of the Amerin Fay Associatn (an anti-LGBT hate group), had urged sponsors to pull their advertisg om the show bee "ridicul people of fah, " and the Catholic League had nmned the show even before premiered March, objectg particularly to gay journalist Dan Savage's show is based partly on Savage's life, and he is one of s executive producers. Kenny is played by gay actor Noah 's "manial hatred of Catholicism is so strong that would be as though David De were hired to produce a show about Ain Amerins, " said Catholic League print Bill Donohue an ad The New York Tim March.

SUPPORT YOUR CHILDREN IF THEY ARE GAY, POPE TELLS PARENTS

Right-wg blog NewsBters lled "vigilantly anti-Catholic" and objected to s "multiple liberal agendas cludg qutng why there are no female prits and showg two youngsters on a gay date. The send season of “Love, Victor” — the spoff seri of the groundbreakg 2018 g out feature “Love, Simon” — picks up right where the first left off, wh Atlanta teenager Victor Salazar (Michael Cimo) tellg his parents that he’s gay.

MY CATHOLIC KID IS GAY! NOW WHAT??

As the season unfolds, while Armando do the work to unrstand his son by attendg meetgs of the lol chapter of an LGBTQIA+ ally support group, led by Simon’s father Jack (Josh Duhamel), Isabel really stggl to accept that Victor is gay. Ortiz even played that role to perfectn on ABC’s beloved telenovela “Ugly Betty” as Hilda Suarez, who fiercely protected her young gay son Jt (Mark Inlito). She relays how her late Freddy was voted to her paternal grandmother Ramona, spe the fact that for a long time Ramona uld not accept that Freddy was gay.

One of the biggt stickg pots between Victor and Isabel is her refal to allow Victor to tell his ltle brother Adrian (Mateo Fernanz) that he’s gay, a velopment that grew out of the small ntroversy when “Love, Victor” moved om s ial home on Disney Pl to Hulu before Season 1. Once Adrian do learn that Victor is gay, he accepts whout a send thought, which spurs Isabel to nont the biggt impediment between her and Victor: her lifelong votn to the Catholic Church.

Early on Season 2, Isabel even nsults her prit about Victor; he unsels her to try to help her son fd his way back to J — other words, to stop beg gay. 16, 2017Last year was a remarkable time when me to the reprentatn of gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr or queer regular characters on televisn, acrdg to the latt Glaad report monorg diversy on the small screen.

NUMBER ONE GAY SON

People, or beg able to help people unrstand who we are, pecially those tim when so many people lived hidn and visible, ” said Sarah Kate Ellis, the print and chief executive of Glaad (formerly known as the Gay & Lbian Alliance Agast Defamatn). 1972 — ‘THAT CERTAIN SUMMER’ A divorced father (Hal Holbrook) his his lover (Mart Sheen) om his teenage son Lamont Johnson’s movie for ABC, nsired the first sympathetic pictn of gay people on televisn.

”)1977 — ‘SOAP’ In this ABC s, Billy Crystal plays Jodie Dallas — a gay man havg an affair wh a famo quarterback and ntemplatg genr-reassignment surgery — who be one of the first gay dads on televisn.

]1985 — ‘AN EARLY FROST’ A Chigo lawyer (Aidan Qun) returns home to reveal to his parents that he’s gay and has AIDS this NBC movie by John Erman, settg the stage for feature films like Jonathan Demme’s “Philalphia. 1994 — ‘MY SO-CALLED LIFE’ In the episo “Life of Brian, ” this ABC drama about high school angst als wh young gay love when Rickie (Wilson Cz) velops a csh on his new classmate, Corey (Adam Bik). ”2000 — ‘QUEER AS FOLK’ Showtime breaks new ground wh the first hourlong drama the Uned Stat about gay men and women, cludg a character who is H.