Gay characters on soaps

[bandbfan]

I think that's a really good point. A main part of soap stories involve switching arould couples. You can't do that very well with a gay character or two, unless you want to have them be bi-sexual. I know that's not the only kind of story, but it's hard for me to think of people on the soaps I watch that haven't had more than one love interest.

[dragonflies]

AMC is never going to write a real romance for Bianca, they have YET to give her a romance that doesn't involve a man as some type of spoiler for her and whomever.

The storyline with her & Reese, and throwing Zach in their is just more cowardice. So much for the so-called "Groundbreaking" storyline Pratt said he was going to do. Reese/Bianca aren't believable as a couple cause their romance happened off screen and they know nothing about each other, but yet decided to have a baby, why exactly?

Luke & Noah I never bought Noah as gay

[Quent]

I find it fascinating that people are outraged that AMC's Reese is interested in a man (Zach), but have no problem with two heterosexual women (GL) suddenly developing gay feelings. In other words, it's possible for straight women to go gay, but impossible for gay women to go straight.

[Adam]

I agree with this. I mean I too don't really like the direction they seem to be taking Reese with Zach, but I was royally disgusted with some of the comments made not just hear, but elsewhere regarding Reese's previous relationship with Simon.... Many gay people have hetero relationships before they truly realize who they are. I myself never did, but I can totally understand how it could happen. Most of the comments were most likely coming from people who aren't gay themselves and relaly have no alliance to the community. Its funny how now the gay scene is so in, everyone seems to have an opinion on how it should be portrayed.

Getting back to your comments, there is a gross double standard out there. I don't find GL is doing much service to the community with their little "trend setting" storyline.

It just fits into that mantra that two women together is every straight man's fantasy. In no way is it some compelling bi-sexual tale. That's my take on it anyway.

[All My Shadows]

Preach!

I'm no longer all that impressed with Bianca/Reese anymore because of Zachass's involvement, and I've never been too keen on Natalia and Olivia hooking up, so I'm not biased or anything. But I don't get this double standard at all...it's hard to fathom that a woman who identifies as a lesbian might fall for a man....but it's great when two women who identify as straight (one of whom who has been very very very straight for nearly 10 years now) suddenly fall for each other? Something doesn't add up there.

Add this to my wish list: a character who doesn't identify as any of the sexual orientation labels...not gay, not straight, not bi, not any of that. Just goes with the flow and follows the heart. That would be something new.

[Phoenix11]

Now see, that's one of the things that I think is so great about the Otalia storyline. It's about two people being there for each other at their lowest points and helping each other recover, falling in love along the way. It just happens that they are the same sex. I understand where you are coming from as Olivia and Natalia have both been "straight" up until this point. I can't help but wonder looking back though if part of the reason that Olivia's relationships have all failed miserably is because she was never truly happy with a man. You know, that she kept searching for that something that she's finally found in Natalia.

Couples on the shows these days just seem to be thrown together at random. Maybe it's just me, but I think their story is the best thing to hit this show in a very long time and they have supercouple written all over them. I love the little intimate moments they share with each other and they have undeniable chemistry. For those who think this came out of nowhere, go on youtube and watch clips from the past several months, especially those throughout November and December.

As I've said previously, I don't watch AMC and really can't compare it to that show. I think that there are people IRL who identify as gay or straight and there are others who fall in love with a person regardless of gender. I can say that the Otalia relationship has some basis in truth as I know several women who were "straight" their whole lives and later fell in love with a woman. And once Otalia goes the way that most soap couples do, it's not to say that one or both won't fall in love with a man again. But for now, I'm gonna enjoy every minute of their screen time together!

[Quent]

I do get a kick out of the fact that Oakdale, Springfield and Pine Valley all have gay residents, but there isn't a single gay member in the fashion industry in California on B&B.

[Adam]

Bit of a stretch, yes. That never really dawned on me, but so true.

[quartermainefan]

I think the difference is when it comes to gay characters on soaps you get deranged lunatics like Daniel on OLTL who hated his homosexuality so much he became a psychopathic killer, or prancing punchlines like GH's Elton, who was there to be the jester for all the heterosexual characters and audience demanding to be amused by homosexual quirks and cliches. In contrast, you can name dozens, hundreds, and perhaps thousands of heterosexual characters that have appeared in soaps over the years who did not dabble in murder over their sex drives and were not there strictly to be cute punchlines. When soaps are able to list all the gay characters they have portrayed that weren't killers and comedic goofs, then you can say there is some sort of parity and therefore expectations should be the same for all. Before that day is reached, your point is false--especially since after Reese and Bianca there may not be another lesbian couple on AMC ever. So how convenient is that, two girls on GL out of the 10,000 soap women over the years dabbled in bisexuality, so now there is license to take one of only two lesbians, and have the soap say all she needed was a man. Fair is fair I guess.

[All My Shadows]

I get where you're coming from, but I don't think Quent's point is false. It's very valid, and despite there having been thousands of female soap characters who haven't dabbled in bisexuality, to me, the fact of the matter is that this is Natalia and Olivia, two characters who previously didn't show any bisexual inclinations at all. Of course, it all could have been repressed, and that would work for me, but at the heart of it, IMO, is that GL is in a position where they're not going to just think "Hey, let's do this good, fresh, new storyline." I think the crew over there is/was gunning for Nuke-style publicity, maybe a ratings bump, and most of all, the ability to say "Look, GL's hip, we're doing a lesbian storyline, see?" I get that from all of the same-sex couples in daytime now, that they're there for the writers/producers/whoever to be able to trot them out as a show of "diversity." Look no further than Brian "Our [lesbian]s are cuter" Frons.

[Adam]

Basically when it boils right down to it, daytime across the board has dropped the ball big time on accurately representing the gay community post Bianca coming out in 2000.......

Its a real shame. I am of the mind don't do it at all unless you will do the story and the community justice.

Again, I will say "gay" is the in thing now a days..... most movies, and most prime time shows have at least one gay character or some sort of small gay storyline going on.

[Faulkner]

GH could have had something with Lucas, with him being Carly's brother, Michael's uncle, Luke's nephew, Lulu and Lucky's cousin, and heir to the Jerome mob dynasty. They could have done The Sopranos one better by having the Jeromes (if any survived) reclaim him and hooking him up with some hot Zacchara guy. Or something! Instead they wasted him.

That said, I don't think primetime or film (outside of films aimed at LGBT audiences) do a particularly good job at representing gays and lesbians. Even MILK sanitized Harvey Milk beyond belief.

[Adam]

I have not seen Milk yet, but I was kind of concerned about that. No you are right, more often than not Hollywood gets it wrong rather than right.....

[DRW50]

How many shows actually have gay characters who are leading characters, or who have love lives? Very few. The only one I can remember in primetime at the moment is Brothers & Sisters. Most shows only bring gays in for straight characters to react to, not to have a life of their own. Most films only touch gay subjects as something to laugh at or to see as weird or to see as derogatory, like all those Judd Apatow or Paul Rudd films.

This is a story where the show and the actors involved repeatedly said the characters were lesbians, the characters were going to have a groundbreaking relationship, the characters were NOT anything but gay, let's celebrate their upcoming wedding, and then 90% of what is shown onscreen is about one of the lesbians falling in love with a man. The show conned viewers. Even worse, the story is horribly written. They tell us all about how perfect Reese is and she's actually a clingy, self-righteous, confused person. They tell us all about this great love story between Bianca and Reese when, for most of their relationship past their first week or two in town, I've felt nothing between them. The show has put all the moments between Zach and Reese, not because the characters work together or because the actors have chemistry (which I have yet to see), but because the show had planned from the beginning to make this about Zach turning Bianca's girlfriend straight. Meanwhile, the actors involved continue to try to convince viewers this is a great lesbian romance. It's daytime's equivalent of Ted Haggard telling everyone he loves to read Maxim and Playboy. The story is so confused that the most sympathetic character was Reese's allegedly homophobic mother. How did that happen?

I don't see this as an either/or situation. I don't even know how many of the people who hate the AMC story even watch GL. I do watch both, but I don't enjoy the Otalia story because it's about straight women going gay. They haven't even established whether they're going to go forward with a relationship. I've enjoyed the story because they've managed to breathe new life into both characters while staying true to who they are (much more than some of Olivia's heterosexual relationships have done).

[baller]

My thoughts too--there is such potential for B&B.

For fans clamoring that GL is not a gay storyline, lot of talk here in the gay characters on soaps thread--To me it seems like nothing more than GL doing just enough to string everyone along.