AfterElton posted a great interview with Sri Rao in which Rao makes a VERY bold statement about gay stories on soaps. I'm not going to quote it here, I want to see if you guys find it as bold as I do.

http://www.afterelton.com/TV/gayslives/02-23-09

I wish that man would write for real daytime.

wow I which he could actually write for GH

The guy hit the nail on the head about gay stories on soaps. I like how he said that GH hasn't had a significant gay character. That's so true.

"Sri Rao: The fact of the matter is that I, as a gay writer, can definitely write straight stories and straight love stories, in particular because that is the world that we live in. I was raised by straight parents and all of my friends are straight and all of the love stories that you see on television and in movies are straight and so you grow up in a society where you are surrounded by straight love stories and so even if you’re a gay writer, you can easily write those stories because you have so much to relate to that is personal to you and to your life.

The opposite, however, is not true. If you do not have a personal connection to a real gay love, whether that be your own or someone that is very close to you, in your family or in your close circle of friends, then I don’t think that you can write a gay storyline that’s going to resonate with viewers – I mean straight viewers and gay viewers."

Yes. As he says below, there first has to be an understanding, then the writing becomes real. If not, it is, as he says, just checking off one more thing at the progressive box category.

Edited February 24, 200916 yr by YRBB

I love how the columnist or the person who did the layout picked the gayest Brian Frons picture. LOL.

I had to kind of make sure I read the whole way through instead of just going on that one little statement that gay stories need to be written by gay writers.

I do think there HAS to be an understanding of the issues that you are writing about. I think that is why alot of social issue stories come off as really ridiculous or hollow. It's not enough to do a bunch of textbook research and spout off a bunch of facts for your characters to say in dialogue.

Very insightful interview. Sri Rao's GH:NS was such a satisfying watch for me. I wish he was HWing the Mothership, but Sri doubtless knows that Primetime and cable are where it's at. Plus maybe he's not a fan of Sonny and the mob and that, of course, is non-negotiable for ABC. His pilot for The N sounds good.