LGBTQ Representation on Daytime Soaps

[AbcNbc247]

They probably would've gone that route had there not been a writer change.

 

Will needed to be more of a gray character. I did like that he was a good guy overall, but he got dumped on so much. His life was literally destroyed by Victor and Xander, and he just brushed it off like nothing ever happened. I would've loved to have seen a nice long Will's revenge plot, against Sonny/Evan, Victor, Xander, etc. 

[Skin]

 

I definitely think this is the reason why they have one gay character on the canvas and basically just pair them with one other love interest and have that be the "status quo" for multiple years at a time. Producers "can't win", because even if they get conservative audiences that hate LGBTQ+ stories, and then you have LGBT+ fans who feel that the characters aren't being presented in the right way. It's easier to just not try at all because it feels like the bar is so high to reach, meet and maintain. Not only are the writers/producers islanding the characters by limiting the love interests prospects, they are now limited in how they can be portrayed as only saintly characters or angels, with no bad qualities associated to them, otherwise the writing can be deemed problematic. I actually think the Sonny/Paul/Will and Luke/Reid/Noah triangles were good for Daytime, and felt progressive, even just notionally. Paul/Will was also an interesting pairing. 

 

 

I thought Kish was great for OLTL, the only problem to me was that they sort of came too late, and then dismissed them after about a year of story, which seemed wrong. 

[koos]

Will needed to be a total [!@#$%^&*] and they kept him painfully clean.

[FrenchBug82]

 

I know Kish is popular on this board but I disliked the Kish story very much and a very significant portion of fans (not least of which the soap press) hated them because the story started SO preachy. It was tedious overcompensation for the criticism they got for writing Daniel and it felt just going overboard the other way for me.
Then when they tried to spice them up with regular soap stories, they involved them with the hated Stacy Morasco and that didn't help their cause.
I will have taken them of course because it is not because they are gay characters that I have to like them and I am happy about "representation" but I am always surprised how the story is told around this board.
I am glad people have fond memories of them but they were *not* unanimously well-received among fans, including by fans you should have expected to support them, like me, which is part of why they cut their losses after not too long.
Now "sources" telling the press they were to blame for poor ratings, THAT was homophobic. But the characters being written off was not necessarily. They weren't well thought-out, I am sorry to say.

[wingwalker]

The current state of LGBTQ characters on soaps is pretty dire and in many ways, feels worse now than 5 or 10 years ago. I think a lot of it is the soaps are so risk averse now. The ratings have fallen so low, they are afraid to offend anyone. Not that I necessarily agree with that logic, but I think that's how a lot of soap execs feel. 

 

I do have to give DAYS some credit though, they reversed their decision to kill off Will when a lot of other soaps wouldn't have and just kept him dead. Plus, even though Sonny and Will is one of the most boring gay couples ever, overall DAYS, kept them on longer than just about any other soap has with their gay characters, and they did get a lot of story for several years, especially early on. 

 

As for the UK Soaps, 

 

Hollyoaks does get a praise for the number of LGBTQ characters is has, something that few other soaps have. The problem is, that soap isn't for everyone and bit of an acquired taste. There also seems to be some unwritten rule that every gay character has to sleep with the god awful Ste at some point. 

 

EastEnders I thought did well with their gay couple, Ben and Callum at first and are still one of the shows main leads. The only ones that get more airtime then they do are Mick and Linda. The problem is that show is abysmally bad across the board. I don't think I've seen a soap this bad since Chuck Pratt's tenure at All My Children. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[victoria foxton]

Will needed to sow his wild oats. Before entering a marriage of sheer boredom. He also needed an edge. Which we saw little light flashes off very early on. Before he became super nice. Will's affairs the one off screen and with Paulie. At least hinted at Will's untapped complexities

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[Faulkner]

Even though they later regressed and got conservative, I’ll always give DAYS credit for those *hot* scenes between Guy Wilson and Christopher Sean. It’s rare that a soap impresses me with how far they go, but they held little back. 
 

I wish they’d done more with Brant Daugherty’s character Brian back in the day.

[FrenchBug82]

From the get-go they were pretty bold with a lot of the gay stuff that involved Will. Never Sonny which I suspect has to do with FS.
If you remember Will's first kiss scene, it was very clumsy but it was a pretty passionate fake kiss. I read it as subtext of his gayness coming out first through sexual desire before falling in love properly with Sonny later but even if it wasn't the intent, it still was a lot more aggressive than you'd have expected.

[DemetriKane]

At this point, I could not care any less, about a LGBT character/couples right now. They’re all boring fr. If you’re not giving me realism, keep it!  I would have to write it Myself to get the representation I want to see. I’m completely fine if I never see another coming out story too. I’m over the standard gay storylines: aids/HIV, adoption, etc.  I’m just tired of waiting to see MYSELF on screen. Gay characters have suffered the way the black characters have, the writers  play it so safe to not offend, that we all end suffering because we’re dealt a half baked character and/or they don’t know what to do with him/her. It’s so many stories to tell if they just say [!@#$%^&*] it and tell a real gay characters journey.

[John]

Not that story. There was a gay Character in 2004-05, Mark Solomon who was part of the Love Crew. He ended up having an affair, off-screen with Nora's then Husband, Daniel Coulson who killed  Paul Cramer when he learned Daniel's secret. Then killed Jen Rappaport when she learned Daniel killed Paul. After he was busted, Daniel blamed being Gay like it was a disease & compared it to alcoholism

Edited April 9, 2021 by John

[SteelCity]

Amen!

[Soapsuds]

You mean when Will was riding Paul?

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[AbcNbc247]

The day Will Horton became Will Whoreton 

 

And, it was written very well lol Paul's seduction of Will really was a can't miss episode

Edited April 10, 2021 by AbcNbc247

[Faulkner]

Lol. That, and just Paul’s seduction of Will and how unapologetically horny that scene is. Then the sex scene where the camera pans up from the clothes strewn on the floor to Paul and Will rolling around under the covers. And then the afterglow scene with Will going in for Round 2 when Sonny comes knocking on Paul’s hotel room door.

It was treated the same way a sexy infidelity scene would be treated for a straight couple.

[Soapsuds]

 

Yes it was .....as Blanche Deveraux would say it was tastefully done.