‘Morn Fay’ Gay Marriage Proposal: Wrer Reveals Emotnal Backstory (Exclive) – The Hollywood Reporter

the gay couple in modern family

The cln of a gay uple “Morn Fay” is a great thg that helped a lot of viewers realize that gay men exist, and that many of them live lovg, monogamo relatnships as they raise children. And, remember, the ABC s buted six years before same-sex marriage was legalized the Uned Stat.

Contents:

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

Fergon, who is gay real life, and Stontreet played the beloved married uple Mchell Prchett and Cameron Tucker for eleven seasons on ABC's Morn Fay.

Fergon was nomated for five Emmys for his role, and Stontreet was nomated for three, wng two awards for Outstandg Supportg Actor a Comedy uple was much ld for their pictn of everyday married life for a gay uple on an ABC s. They also adopted a dghter, Lily, and later another child, beg one of the most visible exampl of a gay fay on TV for fans might be beggg for the whole st to rne, this cute rnn will have to hold over until then.

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

While Sofia Vergara’s Gloria waltzed her way to the hearts of gay men and lbians for wildly different reasons, was Cameron and Mchell’s lovg relatnship that ma LGBTQ viewers feel tly seen and reprented. Played by Jse Tyler Fergon and Eric Stontreet, seeg a lovg (and bickerg) gay uple on primetime was a revelatn. “The seri has nsistently brought lns of viewers every week for the past 11 years, and let viewers — particularly on who may not have been tung to other clive seri on ble or streamg — get to know and love a gay uple all their ups and downs and trials and tribulatns.

Hulu buted “The Bravt Knight” last year, an animated fairy tale about a gay dad reuntg his adventur to his adopted dghter. 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.

STT D. PIERCE: ‘MORN FAY’ SERV PRAISE FOR CLN AND BRICKBATS FOR GAY STEREOTYP

" 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. 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.

MORN FAY’S BIG, GAY (AND IMPORTANT) WEDDG

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

SARAH HYLAND CONFIRMS HER "MORN FAY" CHARACTER IS BISEXUALHALEY DUNPHY ULD BE DATG WOMEN {FONT:NORMAL 800 1.2REM/1.2 "D BOLD",SANS-SERIF;TEXT-TRANSFORM:NORMAL;LOR:HER;DISPLAY:LE-BLOCK;PADDG-BOTTOM:6PX;POSN:RELATIVE;TEXT-TRANSFORM:UPPERSE;}{BACKGROUND:#89308A;BOTTOM:0;NTENT:'';DISPLAY:BLOCK;HEIGHT:2PX;LEFT:0;POSN:ABSOLUTE;RIGHT:0;-WEBK-TRANSN:ALL 0.2S EASE;TRANSN:ALL 0.2S EASE;WIDTH:100%;}{LEFT:51%;RIGHT:51%;WIDTH:0;}{FONT:NORMAL 800 1.2REM/1.2 "D BOLD",SANS-SERIF;TEXT-TRANSFORM:NORMAL;LOR:HER;DISPLAY:LE-BLOCK;PADDG-BOTTOM:6PX;POSN:RELATIVE;TEXT-TRANSFORM:UPPERSE;}{BACKGROUND:#89308A;BOTTOM:0;NTENT:'';DISPLAY:BLOCK;HEIGHT:2PX;LEFT:0;POSN:ABSOLUTE;RIGHT:0;-WEBK-TRANSN:ALL 0.2S EASE;TRANSN:ALL 0.2S EASE;WIDTH:100%;}{LEFT:51%;RIGHT:51%;WIDTH:0;}TVBY TRISH BENDIXNOVEMBER 2, 2017/4:03 {HEIGHT:HER;DISPLAY:-WEBK-BOX;DISPLAY:-WEBK-FLEX;DISPLAY:-MS-FLEXBOX;DISPLAY:FLEX;POSN:RELATIVE;-WEBK-FLEX-WRAP:WRAP;-MS-FLEX-WRAP:WRAP;FLEX-WRAP:WRAP;-WEBK-ALIGN-EMS:CENTER;-WEBK-BOX-ALIGN:CENTER;-MS-FLEX-ALIGN:CENTER;ALIGN-EMS:CENTER;-WEBK-BOX-PACK:CENTER;-WEBK-JTIFY-NTENT:CENTER;-MS-FLEX-PACK:CENTER;JTIFY-NTENT:CENTER;-WEBK-TRANSFORM-ORIG:CENTER;-MS-TRANSFORM-ORIG:CENTER;TRANSFORM-ORIG:CENTER;} IMG{HEIGHT:100%;WIDTH:100%;OBJECT-F:VER;}{HEIGHT:574PX;WIDTH:1020PX;}PHOTO BY AXELLE/BER-GRIFF/FILMMAGICLOS ANGELES, CA - SEPTEMBER 17: ACTRS SARAH HYLAND ARRIV AT THE 69TH ANNUAL PRIMETIME EMMY AWARDS AT MICROSOFT THEATER ON SEPTEMBER 17, 2017 LOS ANGEL, CALIFORNIA. (PHOTO BY AXELLE/BER-GRIFF/FILMMAGIC)BY TRISH BENDIXNOVEMBER 2, 2017 / 4:03 PM{"@NTEXT":","@TYPE":"NEWSARTICLE","HEADLE":"SARAH HYLAND CONFIRMS HER \"MORN FAY\" CHARACTER IS BISEXUAL","THUMBNAILURL":","DATEPUBLISHED":"2017-11-02T20:03:30.000+0000","DATEMODIFIED":"2017-11-02T20:03:30.000+0000","IMAGE":{"@NTEXT":","@TYPE":"IMAGEOBJECT","URL":","WIDTH":1920,"HEIGHT":1080},"URL":","THOR":{"@TYPE":"ORGANIZATN","NAME":"LOGO TV"},"MAENTYOFPAGE":{"@TYPE":"WEBPAGE","@ID":"},"PUBLISHER":{"@TYPE":"ORGANIZATN","@ID":","NAME":"LOGO TV","URL":","LOGO":{"@TYPE":"IMAGEOBJECT"}},"CREATOR":"TRISH BENDIX","KEYWORDS":"BISEXUAL","ARTICLESECTN":"TV"}{BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;PADDG:24PX 0;} A{LOR:#354A4E;-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;} A:HOVER, A:FOC{-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:NONE;TEXT-RATN:NONE;} B, STRONG{FONT-WEIGHT:700;}ACRDG TO MORN FAY STAR SARAH HYLAND, HER CHARACTER, HALEY DUNPHY, IS {BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;PADDG:24PX 0;} A{LOR:#354A4E;-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;} A:HOVER, A:FOC{-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:NONE;TEXT-RATN:NONE;} B, STRONG{FONT-WEIGHT:700;}A FAN ON TWTER ASKED THE ACTRS ABOUT HER CHARACTER'S SEXUALY AND WHILE HYLAND SAID SHE ULDN'T SPEAK FOR THE WRERS, SHE ULD NFIRM THAT HAYLEY IS, FACT, {BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;DISPLAY:-WEBK-BOX;DISPLAY:-WEBK-FLEX;DISPLAY:-MS-FLEXBOX;DISPLAY:FLEX;-WEBK-BOX-PACK:CENTER;-WEBK-JTIFY-NTENT:CENTER;-MS-FLEX-PACK:CENTER;JTIFY-NTENT:CENTER;} .TWTER-TWEET-RENRED, {M-WIDTH:65%;WIDTH:TO !IMPORTANT;} {WIDTH:100%;} {MARG-LEFT:TO !IMPORTANT;MARG-RIGHT:TO !IMPORTANT;} IMG{MAX-WIDTH:100%;WIDTH:100%;} > IAME{BORR:NONE;MAX-WIDTH:100%;} > *{MAX-WIDTH:NONE !IMPORTANT;}{BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;PADDG:24PX 0;} A{LOR:#354A4E;-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;} A:HOVER, A:FOC{-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:NONE;TEXT-RATN:NONE;} B, STRONG{FONT-WEIGHT:700;}HALEY HAS SO FAR ONLY DATED MEN ON THE H ABC EDY, BUT THAT ULD CHANGE. (HALEY'S TEASED YOUNGER SISTER ALEX WAS A LBIAN BEE OF HER CHOICE SENSIBLE FOOTWEAR.){BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;PADDG:24PX 0;} A{LOR:#354A4E;-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;} A:HOVER, A:FOC{-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:NONE;TEXT-RATN:NONE;} B, STRONG{FONT-WEIGHT:700;}OUTSI OF THE SHOW'S MAJOR GAY UPLE, MCHELL AND CAMERON, MORN FAY HAS ALSO HAD RECURRG GAY CHARACTERS CLUDG PEPPER SALTZMAN (NATHAN LANE), RONALDO (CHRISTIAN BARILLAS), LONG (KEV DANIELS), PAM (WENDI MCLENDON-COVEY), CRISP (CRAIG ZIMMERMAN), AND STEVEN AND STEFAN (RODRIGO ROJAS AND COL HANLON).{BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;PADDG:24PX 0;} A{LOR:#354A4E;-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;} A:HOVER, A:FOC{-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:NONE;TEXT-RATN:NONE;} B, STRONG{FONT-WEIGHT:700;}HALEY WOULD BE THE SHOW'S FIRST BI CHARACTER, THOUGH, AND ONE OF FEW OUT BISEXUAL CHARACTERS ON A PRIMETIME {BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;PADDG:24PX 0;} A{LOR:#354A4E;-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;} A:HOVER, A:FOC{-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:NONE;TEXT-RATN:NONE;} B, STRONG{FONT-WEIGHT:700;}IT WOULD'T BE HYLAND'S FIRST QUEER ROLE, THOUGH: SHE SHARED A SAME-SEX KISS WH A IEND THE MOVIE DATE AND {BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;PADDG:24PX 0;} A{LOR:#354A4E;-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;} A:HOVER, A:FOC{-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:NONE;TEXT-RATN:NONE;} B, STRONG{FONT-WEIGHT:700;}REID EWG, WHO PLAYED HALEY'S BOYIEND, DYLAN, ME OUT AS GAY A 2015 HUFFPO SAY DISCSG HIS BATTLE WH BODY {BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;DISPLAY:-WEBK-BOX;DISPLAY:-WEBK-FLEX;DISPLAY:-MS-FLEXBOX;DISPLAY:FLEX;-WEBK-BOX-PACK:CENTER;-WEBK-JTIFY-NTENT:CENTER;-MS-FLEX-PACK:CENTER;JTIFY-NTENT:CENTER;} .TWTER-TWEET-RENRED, {M-WIDTH:65%;WIDTH:TO !IMPORTANT;} {WIDTH:100%;} {MARG-LEFT:TO !IMPORTANT;MARG-RIGHT:TO !IMPORTANT;} IMG{MAX-WIDTH:100%;WIDTH:100%;} > IAME{BORR:NONE;MAX-WIDTH:100%;} > *{MAX-WIDTH:NONE !IMPORTANT;}{BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;DISPLAY:-WEBK-BOX;DISPLAY:-WEBK-FLEX;DISPLAY:-MS-FLEXBOX;DISPLAY:FLEX;-WEBK-BOX-PACK:CENTER;-WEBK-JTIFY-NTENT:CENTER;-MS-FLEX-PACK:CENTER;JTIFY-NTENT:CENTER;} .TWTER-TWEET-RENRED, {M-WIDTH:65%;WIDTH:TO !IMPORTANT;} {WIDTH:100%;} {MARG-LEFT:TO !IMPORTANT;MARG-RIGHT:TO !IMPORTANT;} IMG{MAX-WIDTH:100%;WIDTH:100%;} > IAME{BORR:NONE;MAX-WIDTH:100%;} > *{MAX-WIDTH:NONE !IMPORTANT;}{BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;CLEAR:BOTH;}{BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;MARG:0 TO;WIDTH:90%;M-WIDTH:288PX;MAX-WIDTH:1440PX;M-HEIGHT:194PX;}LATT NEWS

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. 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. (Photo urty of Gill Mgasson/ABC) “Morn Fay” stars Eric Stontreet as Cameron and Jse Tyler Fergon as cln of a gay uple “Morn Fay” is a great thg that helped a lot of viewers realize that gay men exist, and that many of them live lovg, monogamo relatnships as they raise children.

But creasgly as the seasons went past, you had to wonr if there wasn’t some harm two of TV’s most proment gay characters beg so stereotypil. [Read more: Missn acplished: ‘Morn Fay’ has changed TV]In 2014, out gay actor Tuc Watks (“Dperate Hoewiv, ” “One Life to Live”) ma headl when he posted a Facebook ment praisg “Morn Fay” but addg that he had “a hard time lghg at the gay guys. It feels a ltle b like the gay equivalent of ‘blackface.

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

But also serv the cricism, bee ’s te that Mch and Cam lean to gay stereotyp — they’re flamboyant and (particularly Cameron’s se) feme.

Which feeds to the stereotype that gay men are feme. (To be clear, there’s nothg wrong wh a straight man like Stontreet portrayg gay characters. Some activists make that argument, ignorg the fact that there are a lot of gay actors playg straight rol who’d be out of work if they were rtricted to gay rol.

‘MORN FAY’ WRER REVEALS EMOTNAL BACKSTORY OF ‘HISTORIC’ GAY MARRIAGE PROPOSAL (EXCLIVE)

And I agree wh Fergon (another out, gay actor) when he says that, y, there really are gay men exactly like Mch and Cam.

When the show premiered 11 years ago, there weren’t a lot of gay characters on TV — so maybe an effort uld have and should have been ma to go beyond the ’s pretty easy to say, “Oh, Mch and Cam are jt two gay guys. They’re not meant to reprent all gay men. ” But that don’t expla why the vast majory of gay men portrayed “Morn Fay” by gut stars were jt as flamboyant, if not more so.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* THE GAY COUPLE IN MODERN FAMILY

Stt D. Pierce: ‘Morn Fay’ serv praise for cln and brickbats for gay stereotyp .

TOP