Gay characters on soaps

[All My Shadows]

LMAO.

[DRW50]

NorrthCafe, I think Higley claimed she based the Coulson story on McGreevey, which is very cheap, since that means she saw a story about a closeted politician and decided he must be a murderer. I also hated this story because they turned Mark, who had some potential to be a good future character if they'd tried, into some closeted, self-loathing man's toyboy. This came on the heels of Mark's coming out story and sent a terrible message, which is probably one of the reasons GLAAD (who had given the coming out story an award) spoke up.

I think Bianca was damaged for Reese. I don't know if there was any planning behind Reese beyond Pratt loving Tamara Braun and wanting to showcase her. I don't think he understood that an idea which made sense in his head (Reese being sold as a lesbian soulmate for Bianca AND as a confused love interest for Zach) wasn't going to be an easy sell for viewers. I think Zach is going to get this awful Sonny writing with or without Reese, but I do hate what had to happen to Bianca, and I'm not even a big fan of hers. In Pratt's head I think all of the Kanes were supposed to pale in comparison to Reese.

I hate the cynicism behind this story. Branco and Perez Hilton and the soap magazines laud AMC for their lesbian wedding, Perez says CBS should take note, even though the story is about a sexually confused woman who is in love with her brother-in-law. What message should we take, it's amazing to see a wedding for a lesbian couple who had 90% of their relationship offcamera, who are not in love, and who are being split up by a man? Why is this something to celebrate?

[NorrthCafe]

Well this makes my stomach turn. I never knew that. She followed the McGreevey case and THAT'S what she had to offer? That's the lesson she took from it? So much about DAYS makes sense to me now... not that DAYS makes sense.

I wanted to love Reese for TBraun's sake because she effin rocks everything she's ever done -in my book, but Reese with Zach? Makes.me.scream. The minute Zach was announced as the baby's daddy, I knew there was trouble brewing. To be honest, I was afraid they were going to have Binks fall for Zach, just to make it even more 'dramatic' a switch for her.

I get smacked on another board when I say that I want GL writers to define Otalia's relationship, but this is exactly why. Defining them won't make them safe, but it's better than ambigous relationship with Bianca and Reese (the 'woman from nowhere' riding into town with Binks and stomping on her heart, as nearly every other woman before has). I want GL writers to make the commitment and not screw around as AMC writers have been able to do by leaving Reese a 'mystery'. For me? She can now become a mystery from a distance (Europe isn't far ENOUGH away).

[Paul Raven]

Back in 88,ATWT featured the first male gay character Hank Elliot.Doug Marland was the writer responsible.Remember,this was at a time when the AIDS crisis was a hot topic and sensitive issue.

From SOD

"I was always told the same thing: that a male gay character would be a total turnoff for any female in the audience," says Douglas Marland, head writer of AS THE WORLD TURNS, and veteran writer of such shows as THE DOCTORS, GUIDING LIGHT and LOVING. "And I said, 'But I don't believe that.' I never believed that." Marland had the chance to test his beliefs his year when he created the character of Hank Eliot on AS THE WORLD TURNS.

While more and more social issues have become fodder for daytime serials, the one tory that continued to scare programmers, producers and writers was that of a homosexual man. This became painfully obvious when daytime had a spate of AIDS stories running at once (on ALL MY CHILDREN, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS and ANOTHER WORLD) but not one of them involved a gay man. Clearly, soaps were terrified of audience reaction to an AIDS story involving a gay character, even though homosexual men constitute the largest group of AIDS victims. Doug Marland thought that was rubbish. He wanted to tell the story of a gay character and he wanted that character to have AIDS. And so Hank Elliot came to Oakdale as a caring, intelligent, talented fashion designer, who happened to be gay.

While Hank is currently out of the story line because the actor who played him, Brian Starcher, has opted to move to Los Angeles, Douglas Marland and his writing team were willing to talk about what it was like to create a story about a gay man and how that story changed.

Douglas Marland: "Around the time that I came on AS THE WORLD TURNS I decided that I wanted to write a gay story line. I've always felt that homosexuality was anarea of society that had been totally ignored or just kind of touched on and run away from. I actually wanted to introduce a gay character on THE DOCTORS in 1972.1 believed there was drama in such a story, there could be people's reactions to the gay character, and inter-reactions — that's what daytime is all about. NBC bought the idea but Colgate-Palmolive, the sponsor, said no way, so it was dropped.

"Because Procter and Gamble and CBS had been so supportive of most anything I wanted to do on AS THE WORLD TURNS I brought it up with Cal [Robert Calhoun, then executive producer]. Cal said, 'Yes, let's talk about it. How would you go about doing it?' I said the important thing to me in bringing the character on was to let the audience get to like him and know him before we knew anything about his homosexuality, because immediately, I thought, minds would turn off unless they liked the guy first. That's the way we did it. Then the writers' strike happened just as the character was coming on the air and thank God Cal and I had discussed enough of the character and how he should intermingle before anything aired. It had been outlined how he would get to know Iva; how she would become his first friend. There's a very real situation there: It's not unusual for so called 'normal' women to fall in love with gay men. I felt that was the way to first have Hank reveal his sexuality: once Iva was looking for more in a relationship than he was able to give her, it would be a very interesting and noble way for the revelation. Shortly after his revelation, the strike was over and we all came back to work.

"Originally, I wanted this character to have AIDS. There had never been an AIDS story told of a gay man. So I felt that once the character was established he might be right for the AIDS story. It was important for me to have the audience like him. I wanted to be able to say this is a gay man, an honorable man, a good man, a man with decent values who you have liked and suddenly he is dealing with this ugly, crippling disease. AIDS victims are not monsters. Have some compassion for him because a lot of people are dealing with AIDS in their families. That's where I felt we would be doing a great service. Then a strange thing happened in this story that never happened in anything else I'd written. The acceptance of the Hank character became so overwhelming from all segments of the population. What we learned from letters and focus groups was that what they liked about the story was that it was different, they had never seen it before on another soap."

"What this character had was a very quiet courage," Associate Writer Stephanie Braxton adds. "There was just something about the character and the actor that gave you such confidence."

"But as the story started unfolding 1 found I wasn't sleeping well," continues Marland. "I felt we might end up doing exactly the opposite of what we wanted to do. If Hank got AIDS, the message I would be sending out to Middle America is that every gay man who comes into your midst is going to be a victim or carrier of AIDS. I didn't know how to get out of it because we were on a course. My writers felt the same way. Well, we had established very openly and very honestly that Hank was in love with Charles, his lover. Charles was a great love: honest, strong, compassionate. So I thought, what if Charles becomes the victim?

We can still deal with the horror of AIDS from Hank's point of view without sending the message that every gay man is going to have AIDS, get it, give it or carry it. The reason you didn't see Charles till the end was I always felt seeing him would turn a lot of people off. I felt that maybe we would be hitting the audience too hard the first time out. Maybe next time or maybe when we bring Hank back, if we bring him back, we can go that extra step."

Breakdown Writer John Kuntz says that what was surprising for him was how different the story became from how it was originally conceptualized. "We all sort of assumed that this was going to be a gay story and a story about AIDS, but as we began writing it, it became a story about the other characters' reactions to Hank. The characters revealed much more of themselves in the way they responded to Hank and somtimes what they revealed triggered other story lines."

Marland believes that the different reactions characters had to Hank were appropriate for who they were. "I felt that Paul, for example, had it in his background to be resistant, especially since Hank's homosexuality was kept from him and because Paul's hangups with his father, and his needing to lash out at something. Andy's acceptance of Hank wasn't immediate and I loved the way Scotty DeFreitas played it. He played it as very confused and off-balance. Then as he got to know Hank and was able to talk to him more openly, it changed."

No matter how well the story was accepted there were still fears on the part of the writers. "I was afraid that if we didn't do the story as well as we hoped we could, it would be a turnoff and discourage other soaps and daytime writers to include gay characters in their casts," explains Marland. Adds John Kuntz: "The only thing I said to Doug when he first brought up the story was that I hoped however we did it, we would break stereotypes, such as all gays are effeminate, or hairdressers or promiscuous."

"We've now heard from a lot of producers and writers at other shows," says Doug Marland, "who say, Thank God you did it, now maybe we can do it.' But if we've only done that, shown that there are stories to tell, there are interesting relationships to deal with and the world isn't going to turn their sets off, then we've accomplished something. I don't have a single regret in telling this story

[Bright Eyes]

Thanks for posting that interview. I always though the Hank character was written out due to the storyline being over and not because the actor left New York. I wonder the actor had stayed would the Hank character have been around longer?

[DRW50]

Wonderful article about Hank. I miss the days when soaps could be socially progressive, instead of only going for shock value. These types of stories later became mocked for being neutered, or for having "straight-acting" men, but after the last few years of TV or movie landscape where you still often just see tragic gays, bi***y supporting gays, mentally unstable gays, those old stories where they tried to show a gay man is like anyone else are sorely needed.

[Paul Raven]

From SOD (Whatever happened to Brian Starcher??)

A likeable fashion designer from New York — that was all Brian Starcher knew about the soap character, Hank Eliot. Brian had already auditioned twice before at AS THE WORLD TURNS, for the roles of Craig and Kirk, so when the offer came to create the role of Hank, the actor was delighted. Brian's mother immediately wondered if the character was a homosexual. "Mom, how stereotypical can you get?" Brian retorted.

Two weeks into the role, then executive producer Robert Calhoun dropped the bomb: Hank was, indeed, slated to be gay. In a soft low voice, Brian remembers, "This intense flush of homophobia came over my body. I thought, 'Everyone's going to think I'm gay.' " Calhoun suggested the actor go home and seriously think about whether or not he wanted to take on the role.

"I started thinking positive things about doing it and realizing that people who I love aren't going to care," Brian recalls. His agents didn't object, as long as the story was handled with taste and sensitivity. But, Brian had two other potential obstacles. The middle child of five siblings, he was apprehensive about his family's reaction — especially what his father would say. "My dad's my hero, a man of great character," Brian explains. "He was very strict. I called him up and I don't remember what he said first, but it wasn't negative. He called back and said, 'Look, Brian. I think this is a wonderful opportunity and I think you should take it. I'm going to support you.' "

Starcher's other concern was his girl friend's response but, as it turns out, he needn't have worried. "She was ecstatic. Hank wasn't going to be in bed with any body on the show. No soap starlets were going to be touching my bod, thank you." Brian accepted the challenge, made easier by the fact that, to date, Hank's lover has never been seen, only mentioned.

As Hank's story unfolds, the character has had to explain his sexual preference to many Oakdale citizens, so "going to confession," is the norm. Obviously, the powers-that-be at ATWT wanted the audience to know just who Hank really is, and their efforts seem to be paying off.

According to Brian, viewer reaction to Hank has been positive. Gay men have written to thank him for presenting an excellent on-camera role model. Some letters won't mention anything specific but think "it's" great. Brian grins and reports that a guy from out West wrote, "It was a real shock when I found out that Hank was queer. I guess it's OK. I still like you any way. Of course, mama and grandma don't think queers should be on soap operas."

Portraying a newcomer who doesn't quite fit in is something to which Brian can relate. When the Starcher family returned to Bergenfield, New Jersey after living in a Chicago suburb, it was a tough adjustment for ten-year old Brian. "I was different. First of all, the way I talked; I didn't have a New York accent. And, all the kids were wearing bell bottoms and sneakers. I was wearing straight-leg slacks and square-toed shoes — and I wore glasses with a little strap on the back. I was an awkward kid, very shy and emotional. I grew up real tall and skinny. I used to get ranked a lot," Brian re members with a laugh — and a wince.

Starcher also had to cope with two other problems. As the middle child, he grew up in the shadow of his eldest brother, who is now a paleontologist. "He's brillant, one of those people who knows the answers to literally every question on JEOPARDY. He read the encyclopedia for kicks." Brian's dilemma was complicated by the fact that he had dyslexia, a learning disorder. At the time, his condition was undiagnosed. Dyslexia impairs a person's ability to read. Although cases vary in severity, a person with dyslexia will often mix up the order of letters and/or numbers.

As a response to his troubles, Brian turned to athletics and achieved success inseveral sports, including weightlifting. As a result, he observes, "I sort of built this shield as I started to develop my body. I built up confidence and cockiness and became pretty much of a monster by the timeI got to college."

As a teenager, Brian participated in football, wrestling and track programs, but grew tired of the emphasis on winning and dropped out of athletics when he was a junior in high school. "I got into gangs and those kinds of things — fights and being generally disorderly, wreaking havoc," he ruefully admits, adding, "There was a park and we would hang out down there and get drunk." How did this behavior go over at home? Brian replies matter-of-factly, "Never got in trouble. I was a very good liar."

Brian became interested in acting during his senior year when someone asked him, "Do you want to be in the play?" When Brian learned that the role called for him to kiss a certain girl, he replied, "Well, that sounds good." He liked doing it — kissing the girl and acting in the play — and majored in theater at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey before dropping out to try his luck as a performer in New York. He did some theater work, but eventually gave it up and bartended with the intention of earning enough money to open a business. Brian resumed acting and "got serious" when he found an agent who felt he had a strong desire but lacked focus. Enrolling in an acting class didn't really teach him how to act, Brian says, but "It made me more comfortable with who I was. I had this very intimidating wall; I needed that shield. I was a tough guy, but it wasn't really me. It helped me drop that. It took a while."

Brian believes a major turning point in his life occurred when he tore up his knee during a dance performance. "I had sort of gotten into this hunk status," he notes and had, until then, accepted the type-casting. The injury, however, forced him to take the focus off his body and place it on his mind. Brian worked with John Tillinger at the Longwharf Theater, and was studying with William Esper when the opportunity arose to create daytime history portraying Hank Eliot.

So far, it's been smooth sailing, but will portraying a gay man affect his career? Brian concedes, "It's a risk... I'd much rather be playing Hank than a hunk ... but I miss playing love scenes with women."

[nicknack]

Paula and Franzi on GZSZ, two best friends, both with boyfriends, fall in love with each other. And isn't Hollyoakes also doing a two women having sex even though they were previously straight storyline? (they are the same age, but one girl is the other girl's dad's gf)

And personally, I find the idea of two already gay characters falling in love much, much, much more revolutionary and forward than two straight people falling for each other. In the end "we are not gay, we just love each other" is just a way for the shows to pussyfoot around having to portray actual gay characters. If the characters are already gay rather than straight characters being turned gay for the story to me that makes a much bigger point about gay/lesbian people, that they are normal like everybody else, that not every single gay storyline has to be a coming out story, that gay couples can have the very same issues as straight couples have. In the end, coming out stories are usually great ad dramatic and all, but in the end (1) it's repetitive by now (2) it's all about guilt and shame and whining (3) it's usually a lot more about how straight characters feel than about how gay characters feel. How Erica felt about having a lesbian daughter. How Holden and Lilly felt about having a gay son. How the previously straight person feels about having all those terrible gay desires.

It's nice to have storylines for educational purposes every once in a while, but to me there is still a stark difference between that and gay characters truly being treated as part of the canvas rather than a freakshow.

For the record, I do not count Reese and Bianca as a romance between two gay from the start characters, not because Reese has bi issues, but because we never got to actually see the meeting and falling in love part. And for people who think it can't be done, look no further than the already mentioned Forbidden Love (gay from the start Tom fell in love with Bi from the start Olli, gay from the start Carla is in love with gay from the start Stella) or Hollyoakes (gay from the start John Paul falls in the love with gay from the start priest Kieron).

[DRW50]

I forgot about Sarah and Zoe. I guess I was thinking more of male characters. Thanks for some of the examples.

I read some character summaries for the old soap Family Affairs, which had a big chunk of gay storylines (although several of the stories with gay/bi men ended in one of the men going off with a woman). I wish some of those clips were online. I've seen some of the lesbian stories for Holly Hart, but nothing for the other characters.

[nicknack]

Well, Otalia are women too, right? Also, not only am I not a huge fan of "turning gay" when the character was previously obviously straight, I tend to think that those kind of stories are a lot more unrealistic for men than for women. Women are more likely to be sold on the "I like your personality so much, let's try to have a relationship" idea.

That said, I think there are a bunch of movies that cover the subject, like Brokeback Mountain of course or another one about two dude's in a house together I forgot the name of.

[Faulkner]

Why does it have to be either/or with people? Sexuality is so much more complex than what usually gets depicted in TV and film. I've always believed that sexuality was a spectrum that can change during a lifetime, and I've known more than one man who was "straight" until his 40s and then discovered he had become attracted to men. And how do we account for people like Stephen Daldry, who is a "gay" man, but married and had a child with a woman? I think a lot of these issues could be investigated by soaps, but we won't see it happening anytime soon.

[nicknack]

But why explore thing that are a minority option of a minority option when the minority option (actual gay people) hasn't been explored yet?

What about the Brian story on ATWT?

How about that it would be nice and powerful if the gay community every once in a while got handed actual gay love stories instead tales upon tales of being closeted, gay/lesbian serial killers and psychos or previously gay people (guy from Dynasty, Reese) hooking up the straight way again?

I don't oppose those kind of stories, but I say I think normal happy gay love stories should be able to exist too. Just for contrast before you wallow into more obscure manifestations.

[Faulkner]

I thought the Brian story had a lot of potential, but ATWT's writers don't seem to be interested in telling stories anymore. They just zip through things, and ideas that could be fleshed out are glossed over in a week.

I agree that soaps should crawl before they walk - tell a good, straightforward gay romance story before adding any bells and whistles. That said, I'm not against the idea of a "straight" character exploring his or her sexuality. However, I think fans who have a more black-and-white view of sexual orientation would flip their lids.

[nicknack]

Really? My impression has been that the vast majority of gay/lesbian love stories has been with characters who started out as straight. Or that when it is done, the stories where one of them starts out as straight get more screentime and more popularity than the ones where it isn't the case (Bianca and Maggie vs. Bianca and Lena and Bianca and Reese, compare to how much screentime was given to Craig of John Paul and Craig struggling with his sexuality as opposed to Kieron struggling with his priest-ness; and even Noah at one time started out as straight)

The rule seems to be that if there isn't a way some straightness can be inserted into the story, then apparently it's not worth telling. (Reese developing straight feelings for Zach, Noah starting out as straight and then the show again flirting with the idea of straightness by having Noah marry Ameera and having Ameera be in love with Noah)

For the record, I do think that soaps are on the right path and for all its faults, storywise Nuke with all their lame mini adventures is a step in the rigth direction. So they get bad writing. So what? Name me one soap couples that doesn't have horrible whiplash writing of some kind. (nor did I mind the Ameera type of straightness insertion since it was always pretty obvious that Noah wasn't into her AND the show followed with Brian as a sort of triangle partner; so I must be the only person who wasn't that bugged with the Ameera storyline other than it was as plot-hole-y and badly acted as lot of other stories are)

[Faulkner]

I think what GL is doing is more daring - take two established characters with track records and make them question the core of themselves. Most gay storylines on soaps have been about teenyboppers and twentysomethings, and who the hell knows who they are at that age anyway?