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CHANNEL 4 LED THE GAY REVOLUTN TV
Owen Jon’s celebratn markg 20 years sce the excellent seri Queer as Folk was first televised (Journal, 28 Febary) suggts that was this groundbreakg programme that transformed gay reprentatn on Brish fact, the radil change happened the 1980s on Channel 4. And this year is the 30th anniversary of C4’s Out on Tuday (later OUT), the world’s first worked televisn seri aimed at a lbian and gay dience.
It ran between 1989 and 1994 and was the culmatn of work done by a lot of lbians and gay men – mpaigners, journalists, dividuals and a very small number of workg televisn – for more posive and more regular reprentatn of on journey towards airg the programm was a bumpy ri – volvg qutns parliament, a mpaign by anti-permissive-society activist Mary Whehoe and tabloid newspaper hysteria – and all unfold as part of the rponse of the gay and lbian muny to the Aids crisis and the dranian sectn 28 anti-gay groundbreakg productns that changed broadstg culture happened across more than a om C4’s ceptn 1982. From One Five 1983 through My Betiful Lndrette, In the Pk and Out on Tuday to Dyke TV 1994, our screens were opened up to gay stori. The rpons of the lns of lbians and gay men who watched the programm were much like Owen’s “joyful revelatn” impact broadstg was felt at the BBC, which started to missn s own gay and lbian seri, and the groundwork was laid for all the wonrful dramas and documentari that followed later years, cludg Queer as Folk.
None of the would have happened whout the 1980s gay revolutn TV. The UK has been pecially strong this regard, mirrorg s mendable rerd of excellent gay cema. Followg this creria, programm as diverse as Brishead Revised (1981), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003), Six Feet Unr (2001-05), The Wire (2002-08), Glee (2009-) and Morn Fay (2009-) don’t make the cut, spe their strong sendary queer characters (the ternatnal succs of Morn Fay particular, broadst untri where homosexualy is still illegal, uld help liberalise attus, followg the marriage of Cameron and Mchell, two of the most popular characters).