One Cheer for GLAAD
I have long believed that the best way to change attitudes toward gay people is for gay individuals to live our lives openly without drawing unnecessary attention to our sexuality. That is, we treat our sexuality as just one aspect of who we are. We let our friends and family know that we’re gay, bring our dates (or spouses) to social events just as do our straight counterparts, but don’t bring up our sexuality any more than they bring up theirs.
I hope that the media adopts a similar attitude towards gay characters. That it let us know that they’re gay, but otherwise show them living their lives with joys and struggles similar to those of straight people. One reason I think Ellen DeGeneres‘ 1990s sit-com slid in the ratings after she came out was that it made too much of an issue of her sexuality. Had it perhaps not focused on her sexuality (as Will & Grace (at least the episodes I saw) did not focus on Will’s), it might perhaps have attracted a larger audience. (I’m not the first to make this claim.)
With that in mind, I offer one cheer (but not more) to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) for promoting today’s episode of the CBS soap opera As the World Turns where “teen character Luke comes out to his parents, Lily and Holden.” I am delighted that a popular daytime drama would introduce a gay character.
That said, I don’t think GLAAD’s Public Service Announcement (PSA) which aired after the show will do much to help. Instead of asking that people become allies and friends to LGBT people, we should just let viewers experience the character and his relationships to his family and straight peers. As they get used to a gay character, they will see his sexuality as just one aspect of who he is — and see openly gay people in general as part of the fabric of contemporary society.
Regularly seeing gay characters on their favorite shows, people not already favorably disposed to homosexuality will likely start developing more positive attitudes towards us. I feel this PSA tries to force the issue rather than allow people’s attitudes to evolve gradually, naturally. When people’s attitudes so evolve, they become more genuinely tolerant, accepting even, of gay people.
I witnessed this with my family as well as with Republican colleagues. Because I came out and then continued to act as I had before I was out, they saw that coming out did not cause me — and by extension other gay people — to conform to narrow stereotypes they may once have had. As a result, those stereotypes crumbled.
Rather than put out this PSA, GLAAD might better the community by making sure that Luke does disappear from the show now that he has come out. (Which they may already be doing.)
It’s a very good thing to have a gay character on a show where the principal characers are straight. Those who regularly tune it to Will & Grace are likely already favorably disposed to gay people. Those not so favorably disposed wouldn’t watch it anyway. When a soap opera — or any TV show or movie for that matter — which appeals to straight people portrays a gay character in a positive light, it does much to correct social misunderstandings of our sexuality.
I am thus delighted that Luke Snyder came out today on As the World Turns and commend GLAAD for promoting the episode.
-Dan (AKA GayPatriotWest): GayPatriotWest@aol.com
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I think you’re right.
I also think you may have missed a “not” in there “… making sure that Luke does *not* disappear from the show”?
Comment by Synova — May 9, 2006 @ 8:38 pm - May 9, 2006
I don’t do much TV-at least not series TV (you will mostly find me parked on the Discovery Channel other than CSI)-but I agree that it is nice to see gay characters who are multi faceted, with gay just being one part of the whole. I also think it is nice when authors do something similar. I have long enjoyed the long running series by Jonathan Kellerman which features a gay secondary character-(who actually seems to have a better relationship with his partner than the main character does with his girlfriend).
Comment by just me — May 9, 2006 @ 8:47 pm - May 9, 2006
Well put, Bruce. I experienced the same in my own life. People that were shocked by my coming out and didn’t know what to think have slowly been able to see that there isn’t much difference from before I came out, only that now I don’t hide whom I like. This hasn’t been a problem that I’m aware of and in fact I’ve had a couple of people I’m close to remark positively on that. I’ve never been one to wear my sexuality on my sleeve, which I doubt would be different if I were straight. It’s a part of who I am but not the sum total. The fact that many gays seem to make their sexuality everything that they are as a person is something I cannot understand nor do I agree with.
Comment by Average Gay Joe — May 9, 2006 @ 8:56 pm - May 9, 2006
Er, AverageGay, I’m.
Comment by GayPatriotWest — May 9, 2006 @ 10:50 pm - May 9, 2006
Well put. I take it you don’t watch All My Children?
Comment by ralph — May 9, 2006 @ 11:52 pm - May 9, 2006
Oops! Sorry, Dan. Good job.
Comment by Average Gay Joe — May 10, 2006 @ 12:21 am - May 10, 2006
My mom has watched ATWT for decades, and she told me they had an openly gay character in the late 1980s.
Comment by Attmay — May 10, 2006 @ 1:00 am - May 10, 2006
Though i will disagree with you on politics, you are right on the money on this one.
To often in the gay community we have allowed our Sexuality to identify who we are, i hate when people say “I’am gay”, i always think, are you that shallow that who you sleep with is what defines who you are? Ones sexuality should only be a small part of what their whole being is. I think the majority of gays and lesbians live a normal life, and don’t like drawing attention to themselves, i know me personally, i’m annoyed by the drag queens and flamboyant girlish gay guys, i always feel like saying “you have balls, act like it”.
Comment by Robert Bayn — May 10, 2006 @ 11:08 am - May 10, 2006
I think this is a wonderful post. It really disheartens me of people in any group act outrageously because they feel that if they don’t, they are not part of “that group”. I think most people really don’t care as long as it’s not shoved in their faces, and the disorganized screaming that some of these people take rather than reasoned conversation, further puts them off.
This is great because I can see a perspective of the gay community as gay people being HUMAN BEINGS rather than making themselves sterotypical cutouts.
Comment by andophiroxia — May 10, 2006 @ 2:29 pm - May 10, 2006
Completely agree wrt/living as people, not as gays, and more-or-less wrt/ the media and gay characters, but I do have to disagree a bit on the GLAAD announcement. We need to remember that for millions of red- and blue-staters, the concept of homsexuality is not just “other;” it’s “wrong/evil/immoral/ungodly.” Keeping that in mind, the announcement that a character is gay, especially on a soap filled with characters quite frequently doing all manner of evil things, there is a very real danger that the coming out of a gay character can be viewed in the same light as when the evil widow announces she killed her husband or the scheming brother announces his plans to kill his sister and steal her inheritance. I’m quite serious; the news that a child is gay leads to family friends asking the parents (especially in the South), “Are you ok? How are you holding up in this terrible time?”
If there is one thing the Republicans are masters at, and therefore well-known to readers of this blog, is that the key, the trick, the way to win is all through the frame–how do you frame an issue? Gays need to take (and indeed, have been taking) a page from this playbook and learn to frame issues. In this case, we have the tender coming out moment. You follow that up with the GLAAD announcement to set the concept that this is a good thing, and that Luke and kids like him need help and understanding, etc. This reinforces the “it’s not bad, it’s ok” meme.
With all that said, I definitely offer a few more than one cheer for the GLAAD announcement.
Comment by torrentprime — May 10, 2006 @ 4:57 pm - May 10, 2006
#7 – I think that was a bit-player, and not a member of a core family.
So I’ve heard, anyway.
Comment by Mikell — May 10, 2006 @ 6:25 pm - May 10, 2006
General Hospital has a gay character also – and there was a GLAAD PSA on that also about 3 or 4 months ago.
Comment by Eva Young — May 10, 2006 @ 11:55 pm - May 10, 2006