<p>New s Vic featur a mp gay uple as leads. It may feel like a throwback, but shows how far TV has e, says Stonewall's <strong>Ben Summerskill</strong></p>
Contents:
- GAY MEN
- DO VIC MARK THE END OF GAY TV CHARACTERS BEG VISIBLE?
- JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
GAY MEN
* casualty gay characters *
He was the perfect 'gay bt iend' – sweet, charmg, rg, warm and loyal. In 2017, Holby Cy faced plats after some views emed that the show had “too many gay characters”. Oliver Kent, the then-head of ntug drama at the BBC, told the Daily Star that the show had “two gay love stori” at the time.
He formed a strong iendship wh Adam who was also gay. Lev touched his iends face before he punched him and lled him a "homosexual". Fans of the BBC One show shed to Twter after Lev's outburst wh some predictg that the paramedic will e out as gay the near future.
DO VIC MARK THE END OF GAY TV CHARACTERS BEG VISIBLE?
Love and Duty: Directed by Craig L. Wh Ely Gabel, Jam Redmond, Suzanne Packer, Jane Mellor. A gay love triangle volvg soldiers and police leads to an attempted monoxi job; Guppy is beaten the r park by the racist homophobic thugs featured this and the prev episo." data-id="ma * casualty gay characters *
Is Lev gay? He isn’t homophobic, he’s the closet. Casualty fans were nvced that Lev is gog to e out as gay.
While a fourth said: "I have a feelg Lev is gay. There has been an crease LGBTQ+ reprentatn on both Casualty and s sister show Holby Cy recent years, wh the latter even receivg plats 2017 that had “too many gay characters”.
JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
Acrdg to Oliver Kent, the then-head of ntug drama at the BBC, there were jt “two gay love stori” when the plats were ma. "Ground floor: perfumery, statnery, leather goods, wigs and haberdashery …" The one reason a gay man growg up the 1970s remembers that mouthful is that was the curta-raiser to the only regular TV appearance of a male homosexual – the flouncg Mr Humphri Are You Beg Served? John Inman, who played Humphri, sisted at the time that he wasn't gay.
But Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft's creatn highlighted almost every historic prejudice about homosexual men – Humphri was predatory, va and lived wh his years on, ITV1 has served up Vic. ) But might be stretchg a pot to suggt that the mpery of Vic is radil, and some topilot activists have been outraged at s 2006 Stonewall published Tuned Out, rearch to the visibily of gay people on TV.
It found that 168 hours of primetime broadstg on BBC1 and BBC2, gay liv were reprented posively for jt six mut. (Equally wele, at the time also stcted s potty mouthed Rad 1 breakfast prenter Chris Moyl to stop g the word "gay" as a sual sult. )It's not jt the on-air appearance of role mols such as Clare Baldg and Evan Davis, notable for the brilliance of what they do rather than for the way they were born, that satisfi gay licence-payers and enhanc the self-teem of young gay people.