Monday, April 13, 2009

GAY KIDS RAISED ON TV



No, the title doesn't mean what you think it does. Rather, I am starting to notice an emerging trend on TV shows, where one of the kids in a TV family is gay. For example, both Connor Paolo's character of Eric van der Woodsen on GOSSIP GIRL and Keir Gilchrist's character of Marshall on UNITED STATES OF TARA are both gay teenagers. (So far, both are boys, although there have been lesbian storylines on TV shows before, I just can't think of any). Another example is the Luke & Noah gay boyfriend storyline on AS THE WORLD TURNS. What I like about all these shows is that each of these characters is not a major character on the show. Their storylines focus on their individual struggles as regular teenage kids who just happen to be gay. They are going through their own dating issues, and acceptance issues. All without being the central storyline or focus and merely adding shading to a typical teenage experience. Their families support them, but in a realistic way. There is never an episode where they pander and have "the talk" about being gay. The writer/producers on the these shows just introduce them as gay in an overt, but not offensive way.

It amazes me that Hollywood writers do such of good job of capturing mainstream American society so accurately. It is writers who first started writing about the recession into their storylines and characters lives, whether on a comedy or drama. For people who write from their home offices in front of a computer all day, live in Los Angeles, and can very easy get caught up in the Hollywood lifestyle, most writers remain amazingly grounded to the society they are writing about.

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