‘Morn Fay’ Fale: What Cam & Mchell Did for Gay Fai on TV – IndieWire

Contents:

• 'MORN FAY' AND GAY MARRIAGE: IT'S COMPLITED
• THE MORN FAY EFFECT: POP CULTURE’S ROLE THE GAY-MARRIAGE REVOLUTN
• ‘MORN FAY’ FALLY THROWS THE GAY MARRIAGE EVERYONE WANTED
• GAY PARENTS RAISG KIDS: HOW WILL THEY FARE?
• ‘MORN FAY’ FALE: HOW CAMERON AND MCHELL FOREVER CHANGED GAY FAI ON TV
• JSE TYLER FERGON: 'MORN FAY GAY UPLE IS IMPORTANT'

'MORN FAY' AND GAY MARRIAGE: IT'S COMPLITED

ABCIn a slightly prsg lumn on sex and televisn earlier this week, Washgton Post TV cric Tom Shal sgled out Morn Fay for s portrayal of gay characters. The show, he said, "picts a gay-male marriage which both partners are rehgly dimensnal, believable human 're not flawed the silly, stereotypil ways that once domated such portrayals.

" This statement highlights both how far Morn Fay has e—and how far still has to go when to gay upl Stontreet—the actor who plays Cam, one half of the uple Shal prais his lumn—told me he's proud that the show treats his character's fay like an equal rner of the three fai who make up Morn Fay's supportg triangle. He appreciat that the seri don't need to dwell obssively on the fact that the show portrays a lovg, healthy, stable fay head by two gay parents. It's alright for the dience to know that gay upl kiss.

But apparently, the lculatn is that, we're jt too jumpy to actually watch a very realistic middle-aged and half-overweight gay uple share even a relatively chaste smooch on the show walks an tertg le on qutns of gay inty and sometim miss out on opportuni to nont homophobia. Mch sisted the uple uldn't die the quake bee "if they fd the outfs 's gog to be very bad for the gays. " It was a self-aware ltle le about the gay muny's own ternal bat about perceptn and reputatn.

THE MORN FAY EFFECT: POP CULTURE’S ROLE THE GAY-MARRIAGE REVOLUTN

But acquired a sour note later the show when Nathan Lane showed up to portray an overdramatilly swishy stereotype of the kd Shal mend Morn Fay for wasn't the first time Morn Fay has mocked one kd of gay performance to showse the normaly of a gay fay.

In a first-season episo, the characters assumed a iend of Jay, the fay patriarch, was gay bee of his mannerisms.

‘MORN FAY’ FALLY THROWS THE GAY MARRIAGE EVERYONE WANTED

Her slip to a sual, homophobic teenage mdset isn't shockg. It's an example of the kds of promis straight Amerins make around sexual orientatn all the time, lovg fay or iends whout fully mtg to their stggl for legal and societal show ma a joke of Mch's rponse to perceived homophobia the earlit mut of the seri' premiere episo. But if he'd been the room when Haley had her slip, the scene uld have validated his fears of homophobia—and challenged his extend fay—by revealg the gap between how much the Duphys love Mch, Cam and Lily, and how much they're still fluenced by larger societal views of gay importantly, there's a factual error Shal' asssment of Mch and Cam's relatnship: they aren't actually married, somethg Stontreet nfirmed for me.

GAY PARENTS RAISG KIDS: HOW WILL THEY FARE?

It's not a particularly radil thg to show a gay uple raisg a child together anymore. But at a time when equal marriage rights are a state-by-state battleground, Morn Fay might nsirg makg Cam, Mch, and Lily legally, as well as socially, equal wh the other fai on the 's no qutn that Morn Fay's gay fay is ft, well-sketched, funny and sweet. ABCIt you look at the trend le for the Gallup poll about Amerin attus towards gay marriage, you’ll see that support for same-sex marriage, after craterg for a year, began to climb toward s now-historic height 2009.

‘MORN FAY’ FALE: HOW CAMERON AND MCHELL FOREVER CHANGED GAY FAI ON TV

2009 was the year that dienc met Cam and Mch, a gay uple livg together wh an adopted dghter. A 2012 Hollywood Reporter poll found that 27 percent of likely voters said that pictns of gay characters on TV ma them more pro-gay marriage, and there are news acunts of people credg their newfound sympathy toward gay people to Morn urse, televisn has spotlighted queer people for s, both major rol on shows like Will & Grace and Glee, and mor on on shows like All the Fay and Goln Girls.

But the fact remas that each popular pictn of gay life helped enurage works to take chanc on others, and today there’s unprecented diversy reprentatn of sexualy on televisn, as shown programs like Empire and Orange Is the New any of this matter to the Supreme Court, which jt clared gay marriage a legal right?

JSE TYLER FERGON: 'MORN FAY GAY UPLE IS IMPORTANT'

But speculatg on judg’ motiv is a losg task, and the rise natnal support for gay marriage possibly ow ls to ss than do to mographic shifts and polil anizg efforts followg ballot-box feats to pop culture, ’s probably bt to jt foc on what n acplish now, the wake of Obergefell v. Film and TV has helped popularize the ia that gay upl n be “normal”—as banal as Cam and Mch; as dire need of unselg as Cys and Jam on Sndal; as lovgly parental as Stef and Lena on The Fosters.

Same-sex upl, statistics show, often differ om straight on when to divisns of labor, monogamy, and problem-solvg, and many gay people don’t want to get married and won’t after this cisn. The show was one of the first to have two openly gay characters—Mchell and Cameron Prchett (played by Jse Tyler Fergon and Eric Stontreet, rpectively)—on prime-time TV. However, her most ser relatnship has been wh on-aga, off-aga boyiend Dylan, played by openly gay actor Reid Ewg, who's appeared episos as early as Morn Fay's pilot.

All season long has been leadg up to the marriage of Cam and Mch, the mted gay uple on the h ABC edy seri. Dpe a plot le rried over om the prev episo, which fay patriarch Jay Prchett uncharacteristilly (and rather implsibly) was sudnly iffy on the whole gay weddg thg, he me around and end up walkg his gay son down the aisle. The days, gay parents are no novelty: We see them strollg through our neighborhoods, participatg our PTA meetgs, and, perhaps most notably, appearg on our TV screens: Mchell and Cam, fathers to Lily, on the ratgs smash Morn Fay; Glee’s Sue Sylvter, expectant mom to a baby nceived wh an as-yet-unrevealed sperm donor, and Rachel’s dads, played wh humor and grace by Jeff Goldblum and Brian Stok.