FROM 1992 TO 1993, I WROTE A COLUMN called Media Man for Genre magazine. My modus operandi was to skim through TV, motion picture, and print representations of gay folks, often with the critical eye of a still-zealous activist (at the time, I chaired the media committee of the New York chapter of GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation). In a column from August 1992, which I titled "Prime-Time Trepidation," I wrote that "a look back at last season reveals precious few recurring gay roles among the hundreds of characters inhabiting the tube's dramas and sitcoms." I noted that when gays did make an appearance, it was typically a one-shot deal. For example, on CBS's then-popular -- and firmly liberal -- "Murphy Brown," an openly gay co-worker named Rick joined the staff of the series' fictional network news program for an episode about heterosexual angst (Rick mistakenly assumed that series regular Frank Fontana was gay).
But Rick only appeared on that one episode, never to be mentioned again, with his disappearance never explained or alluded to. This, I wrote, was television's lame idea of gay inclusion -- despite the fact that, in real life, the countless gay staffers on network shows were increasingly open about being gay. In fact, on "Murphy Brown," Rick's mistakenly assuming Frank was gay made perfect sense -- every time I watched the show I couldn't help thinking that the dynamics would have worked better if Frank had been gay.
Flash forward to 1999. This past July, a Los Angeles Times headline declared "Gay Roles Proliferate" in the new post-"Ellen" era. During this fall's television season, you can find 17 out and proud gay characters on the four major networks, and some 28 all told, the story reported. More good news: "Gay characters on TV and the story lines surrounding them are also richer and more complex...." Last season, a character on the popular teen drama "Dawson's Creek" came out of the closet, while on "Felicity" the title character contemplated marrying her gay boss to help him with his immigration problems. The Times commented that last year's most promising new comedy was NBC's "Will & Grace" which is about Will Truman, a gay man whose best buddy is a straight woman, and their sitcom friends.
The most "controversial" thing about "Will & Grace" to date, aside from complaints that Will needs to start seriously dating (which, in the new season, he's begun to do), wasn't gay-related at all. Hispanic media activists were in an uproar when they learned that, in an upcoming episode, Grace's sort-of friend, the wealthy and utterly obnoxious Karen, says to a Latina domestic, -- Hey, you're on the clock, tamale. Get to work." The protesters declared "tamale" an ethnic slur of the worst order and, after a brief tempest, the line was changed prior to airing, with "tamale" replaced by "honey."
Which just goes to show that in the realm of media sensitivities, activist critics will be activist critics, whether straight or gay. As for the latter, a press release from GLAAD bemoans that the 1999-2000 TV lineup was "barely realistic" in terms of gay portrayals. Altogether, GLAAD lists a total of 27 "lesbian, gay, or transgendered characters" on broadcast and cable networks for the season, but finds that "the majority of these representations are small, recurring roles." (Memo to GLAAD: "Recurring" is good!)
The release goes on to state that "with over 540 lead or supporting characters on prime time this fall, the gay community encompasses less than 2 percent of total portrayals." Perhaps most worrisome from GLAAD's perspective, these characters are (can you guess?) too white and too male. While NBC has 8 gay characters, only 3 are women. On Showtime's "Rude Awakening," Jackie may be a black lesbian, but GLAAD characterizes her as only a supporting role (an arguable point, given the ensemble cast), and hey, it's only cable. Flippancy aside, it's true that television's representation of people of color is generally pretty dismal, but GLAAD could at least acknowledge that, after Will Truman, probably the most visible out gay character on network TV is Carter Heywood, an African-American who is the Director of Minority Affairs on ABC's "Spin City."
UPN, shockingly, "features no lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered characters this fall." Shame, shame.
Some late night TV comedians -- including Bill Maher of ABC's aptly named "Politically Incorrect" and Craig Kilborn of CBS's "Late Late Show" -- have taken potshots at the activists' claim that 28 (or 27, depending on who's counting) gay characters aren't enough. GLAAD, with its typical humorlessness, is now offended that its media criticism is being criticized. And so it goes.
But for those of us who grew up when there were NO gay or lesbian or bisexual or whathaveyou characters on our 3 network TV stations, save for the occasional child molester (on one notorious episode of "Marcus Welby, M.D." of all things), and then suffered through the inevitable era of the painful coming out of the one-shot gay friend (say, who remembers "Family"?), and still later groaned when advertisers pulled their spots from "thirtysomething" after the show dared to feature a gay couple, it seems that having 28, or even 27, homosexuals on the tube is incredible, and 2 percent of prime time gone lavender is something akin to amazing. So while GLAAD and other media watchdogs undoubtedly have a point or two somewhere in their morass of dogmatic announcements and denouncements, there's truly reason to cheer, as we await -- and anticipate -- even better things to come.