Y&R: Why is Rafe gay?

[ReddFoxx]

I think the TPTB at Y&R call themselves keeping up with ATWT, GL and AMC by having a gay character, even if it is just a bit recurring player. I imagine he will end up being like the character Lynn Carson was on AMC, the character was a professional who was written as gay, but she never had a love interest, the characters presence was simply about being the soap being edgy.

[rhythmchyc]

I'll take your word for it.

But whenever soaps cast people who aren't Caucasian and straight and really, really pretty, I have to wonder if it's because they want to make a point. Look at B&B, a soap that rarely makes a point about society and, what a coincidence, has been as white, straight, and really, really pretty as a piece of chalk since it began in the 80s.

Chalk is really pretty.

[MarkH]

Okay, but here is where I think I disagree.

1. The onslaught of "fanboys" (or is that "fanbois") are hungry for some good portrayals. So, if that builds audience, enthusiasm and buzz, why is that a problem?

2. Soaps are always about mysteries? Who's the daddy? Whodunit? So, whether Y&R intended it or not, they've given us a fun new game..."Who's the gayboy?"

3. If Y&R didn't want to start this guessing game, there would have been another way to do this. 24 did it this week. A new character was awoken in the middle of the night. As he rolled over, we saw that he had been spooning, naked, with his younger male partner. THAT is "incidentally gay" in a groundbreaking, casual way.

Announcing that Rafe is gay, AND having him use the word "trolling" (for a future night out with Colleen) sets up that he's "Wookin' pa nub"--oops..."Looking for love". THAT is a soap staple. OF COURSE antennae are going to be raised.

At this point, Y&R should NOT be surprised about what they have unleashed. EVERY time a show does this, it unleashes a strong response. From Thirtysomething's gay bed scene in the 1990s on. Nuke. Otalia. Hell, we've got guys following every breath of Christian and Olli and all that jazz.

GLOBALLY, people pay attention to this. So grousers can grouse and they can grouse about hype...but "it is written". Every single time, until it stops being "exceptional" or "special" or "rare" or "unique", the fanboys and girls are gonna get invested.

Rather than lament that, USE that.

I have no complaints or concerns about how Y&R is handling Rafe. I don't care if this story seeps slowly, and if it's six months before anything blossoms....it's all irrelevant. I give Y&R a pat on the back for even going there--especially with its own poisonous history on this topic.

Detroitpiston asks: "why does every other guy now have to be gay?". Because we have an unpartnered man who has said he is looking for companionship. Why even MENTION it if you're not going to move in that direction?

There is almost never anythingn incidental on a soap. Yesterday, when Estella dropped those papers on the ground, I knew it was leading to something (move table, Adam falls) . If a soap lady gets dizzy, odds are within a few episodes it will be a pregnancy or a brain tumor. If a soap character talks about "starting fresh", odds are they are leaving town. If a soap character coughs, can lung cancer or a heart defect be far away?

So it is with "I'm gay". We skipped the coming out and the PSA. But we opened a door, and people are looking.

[brimike]

Honestly, if we had to sit through scenes of Rafe calling people "Mami" and "Papi" and hitting pinatas and looking forward to Cinco de Mayo, playing up his heritage to a cartoonish hilt, I would totally agree with you that the show was making a point and showing off how "cutting edge" they are (and offensive in the process). Then I would think "Holy token character, Batman!"

[rhythmchyc]

Which is where my apprehension lies. I have a feeling it'll be dropped and never mentioned again. I'd hate for him to be a gay bit player. Y&R has been pretty staid over the last few years with their story line themes. It'd be nice to witness something groundbreaking, even if it's been done and done on television for the past 30 years.

[brimike]

Wow, I'm so not getting that vibe at all. Like MarkH said, it may take a while, but I can't imagine any show would reveal even a minor character is gay, without it meaning something in the long run. The only show I can think of that did that was Days with Jack's friend a few years back (I can't remember his name), and there's no way I'm comparing Y&R to DOOL. LOL!

[rhythmchyc]

:lol:

Well his Hispanic heritage wasn't even put on the board here, was it? Y&R's strong-point has never been depicting culturally enriched characters. Everyone's pretty much the same, which is fine with me.

And I'm not saying that Y&R has to open the doors to gay bars in Genoa City or show Rafe contract some STD or show Rafe fighting to the Supreme Court to legalize same-sex marriage in Wisconsin either. I'd just like more than what we've seen. And from what we've seen TPTB do with characters they don't care about this past season, I don't think we'll see anything.

[brimike]

Fair enough. I'm holding out hope, but it wouldn't be the first time I had to eat my words for being an optimist.

[rhythmchyc]

:lol:

[Gray Bunny]

Considering how popular Y&R in the bible-belt of the U.S., it's best to make a character gay without making a big production out of it, but rather show that they're just like everybody else. Otherwise, the 80-year-old's who remember first Kay's first drinking binge will soil their pampers because their show is full of homosexuals.

[JackPeyton]

Even if they do NOTHING with it, im happy they at least made someone gay. Even if he doesn't ever appear again. Just the other week 24 showed a character in bed with another man. It wasn't a story or a plot point, just a tidbit. And its nice.

However, im not so sure nothing will come of it. Y&R usually has a reason or at least an idea for why they do things.

That said, if they do go there and hook him up with anybody else, i really dont want a coming out story and to be told how hard it is to be gay and blah blah blah. Of course if they use a character already on the canvas or the child of someone on the canvas, they have to play that "your gay?" beat, but they dont need to be a PSA about it. Id love it if Y&R was the first soap to weave a gay character/s into storylines and just use them like every other couple. Sexual Orientation Blind Writing if you will.

It would be better if they went the bisexual route.

[JackPeyton]

I agree.

BUT FYI, Days didnt drop Harold. They kept him on for some time in a recurring role. He was brought on in that awful Greta/Jack/Jen storyline and i think helped Jack get Jen back. He worked at the paper with Jack and Jen and hung out with them a lot and had a great friendship with them both -- and a few others. He got dropped when they left the newspaper for the TV Show (i think). In fact, according to IMDB he was in 85 episodes over 2 years.

Granted, they didnt hook him up with anybody but he did mention having a boyfriend and then breaking up i believe. I also know Jenn set him up on a date once.

[Cheap21]

They made Rafe gay? When did I miss that

[rhythmchyc]

I was just as surprised about this last week.

It was during Friday's episode, early on in the episode, before Adam's party, Colleen and Lily are at Crimson Lights lamenting Colleen's single status and Rafe walks in. Lily thinks Rafe would be a good catch and tries to hook them up before she leaves. This is when Rafe sits and joins Colleen and tells her he's gay.

This is mentioned again in a later scene when Colleen and JT are at Jimmy's when she tells him that she needed a date for Adam's party but nothing will come of the date because he's gay.

I wonder if the actor who plays Rafe is gay in real life. Not that it would matter one way or the other but it would be ironic if he weren't while there are a handful of Y&R actors who are in real life and are straight on the show.

I'm curious. Is Graziadei gay?

[MarkH]

Which actor played Harold? I don't have that guy in my directory. What years?