Sexuality on Daytime Soaps

[j swift]

My theory is that historically there are two types of surrogate characters for an LGBT audience.  There are the characters who live lives that mirror gay men, feeling different, longing for acceptance, keeping secrets from their family, or being defined by sexuality (ie Reva).  Then, there are characters who were only in one relationship so they could have been gay and their storyline would have remained the same (ie Anne Tyler).  I like the second type because thinking of classic characters whose sexuality had no effect on their plotline opens the possibilities for stories for LGBT-Q characters beyond just coming out or trying to start a family. 

 

However, as I mentioned in the ratings discussion, I don't think young gay audiences are interested in analogous stories of their sexuality anymore when there is so much diverse material available.

[Scrapple]

A perfect example was the Luke/Noah pairing on ATWT. When he first appeared, Noah was attracted to Maddie. 30 days later, he just flipped for Luke. Since they got together so quickly, there was nothing left but one ridiculous storyline after another (Ameera, Professor Scarf, the Z Twins, etc). Why not make Noah bisexual, where he has to juggle Luke and Maddie, keeping him in everyone's orbit, and not isolated in the gay storyline?

[DeeeDee]

Because people do not believe bisexuality exists.

[Paul Raven]

Soaps have struggled to tell a cohesive, long term story about a gay or lesbian character, let alone delve into bisexuality or any other related topic.

[All My Shadows]

Baby, you are a person after my own heart. I wanted a Luke/Noah/Maddie triangle so, so badly, and I wanted Noah to actually end up with Maddie so that Luke could move on to someone else. That, told in vintage ATWT style with heightened melodrama...man, it would have been beautiful.

Didn't Anne spend all of the 70s floating between Nick and Paul?

[j swift]

Yes,  my point is that one could substitute the names Nicole and Pauline and tell the same story.  An uptight woman whose frigid sexuality is unleashed by a nightclub owner is also torn by her love of a mob fighting lawyer - change the gender, no need to change the story, proves gay characters are capable of more stories than coming out and love triangles with the opposite gender.