Let’s talk about gay characters on television. This is probably one of my biggest pet peeves with anything on TV. The problem only starts when show runners and producers want to show what they are doing with gay characters, when they want to use it to drive up rating and put so much emphasis on it. This does nothing good for the gay community, all it does is show that gay's must be treated more special than any other character.
Take Glee for example; when they had their episode where Kurt and Blaine were going to have sex, they FLOODED the media with it, making it out to be a giant spectacle and the most groundbreaking idea on television. Then the episode came out and all that happened was about 3 seconds at the VERY VERY end of the episode. Honestly, people could have watched the whole episode and just turned off the TV at the last 30 seconds and wouldn't have known that anything had happened with its gay characters. This would not have even been a letdown or even anything bad should they have not hyped it up so much before they released the episode, though to its defense Glee has and AWFUL reputation for doing this with about ANYTHING that they do. What’s that? BRITTANY AND SANTANA ARE GONNA HOOK UP? Oh, they pecked on the lips and said they were going out... that was sad.
What else Glee has taught the gay youth is that you need to settle. Blaine was the first gay guy that Kurt has met and falls head over heels for him. This would normally be kind of cute, but it came at the expense of Kurt loosing who he is at his core and changing himself in order to fit Blaine better. Now if Kurt dated Blaine for a bit and realized this, that would be a great storyline, but no, instead of opening up love interests for Kurt they just forced him into a relationship that did nothing for him and forced him to change. They never brought in some other gay characters that could potentially be a love interest for him... they did it for Blaine, but not for Kurt.
Then on the other side of things you have a little show on ABC Family called 'Pretty Little Liars'. As you may or may not know there is a lesbian character on that show named Emily. She has had multiple love interests throughout the 2 seasons that the show has been on the air and has not changed who she is for the girl that she is dating. ABC Family has never tried to ramp up ratings by promoting their lesbian character, they have just done it. What’s great about that is that they have treated her relationship like any other one on that show. It shows people that gay relationships are normal and that they don't have to be so taboo.
Emily has had 3 different relationships throughout the show and it has always been to expand her character rather than just a ploy for money or for better ratings. When she was dating someone it was for her, she would never settle for just any girl and if they treated her badly they were out the door the next second. She didn't ever think 'I will never find anyone else so I better keep with this chick or risk being lonely forever.’ she is an independent character that knows what she wants and goes for it.
Hell, even Modern Family never made a huge deal when Cam and Mitchell first kissed. They did get some flak for the Season 2 finale when they didn't kiss at the airport but that was more realistic than anything. I know that should I have been put into that situation I would have reacted the same way. As a gay man it is frustrating that you can't be all that affectionate in public, but sadly that is where we are now in society. It is nowhere near as bad as it used to be, but it is still risky to be THAT affectionate in such a public place as the airport. I think that rather than people shunning the show for not having them kiss they should use it as a way to show that there still is a problem in the world with gay PDA and try and fix that. Glamorizing the situation is going to do nothing but pretend like there isn't a problem in the world.
TV isn't the solution to helping create equality around the world, but it is a way to help it. It is a medium that is accessible to nearly everyone and one that is mainstream, it is a great tool to bring awareness to some issues but once creators of those shows try to use it for MORE than that that is when it is harmful to the gay community. When going into trying to bring this awareness you cannot go into thinking 'how can we use this to get more ratings or more money?' because once you hit that point you are no longer doing it for the community and are just going to hurt it and help yourself.
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