How Shonda Rhimes Is Doing More For The Gay Community Than You May Think.

Whenever there is a gay couple on a television show my first thought is 'Yay inclusion!' followed right after with 'Yay inclusion?'. More often than not when a television show has a gay couple, they are treated as just that, a gay couple, rather than being treated as a normal couple with normal problems that heterosexual couples have. I wrote a post about it here once before but I believe it's something that needs to be touched on again.

Scandal has a lot going for it; from week to week it is a nonstop roller-coaster of emotion and drama for 42-45 straight minutes. It was the first show on Primetime television that featured an African American woman as the lead character in about 20 years, the same character is also having an on again and off again affair with the President of The United States, all the while she is fixing some serious problems for America’s Elite and doing it with grace and class… well, most times because Olivia is not afraid to get her hands dirty. It's a show filled with rich and extremely layered characters and just as great plots. Within those characters there is the right hand man to the President who tries tirelessly to remain on the Presidents good side and is as morally corrupt as any other character on the show, with his own version of what the greater good is and fights to uphold it. Oh, and he happens to be gay.

Now when we found out that Cyrus was gay, I had my initial reaction of 'Yay inclusion!' but it wasn't followed by 'Yay inclusion?' because this is Shonda Rhimes we're talking about, the same woman who writes for Callie and Arizona on Grey’s Anatomy, one of the most beautifully written lesbian relationships I have ever seen on TV. So I wasn't really worried about it, even if she didn't go into Cyrus' relationship too much I knew that he wouldn't be defined by the fact that he is gay. Cyrus is gay but that's not all that makes him who he is, him being gay is just a detail, it doesn't define him and it doesn't make him a special snowflake. He is just a man fighting for what he views is the greater good for his country who just so happens to like men.

Shonda is (obviously) not a gay man, yet she can write for one pretty damn well. This just goes to show that although you are not gay, a certain race, or religion, you can still write for characters that are. There are some writers out there that won't even touch certain characters because they feel that they don't know them well enough to do them justice (How ya doin’ Lena Dunham?). Let me let you in on a little secret, people watching aren't expecting you to revolutionize a class of people, we just want to be able to see someone like us on television, to be included. You don't have to know every little thing about gay rights or race issues to write a character like that because chances are that character also won't know everything. As a gay man I don't know every little thing about Gay History, and that's fine. We just want to be treated like normal people, represented as normal on television... and that is the secret, write them like you would any other character. Every episode doesn't have to be dedicated to how this character is overcoming the obstacle of being gay/black/jewish just write them like you would a straight/white/christian and you'll be good. Do some research about the minority you are writing about, the internet is a pretty big space full of tons and tons of information, so you can include an episode or two (maybe even an arc) a season dealing with a struggle that minority could go through.

 Basically, just because you are not within a minority group, that is no excuse that you can't write for them. Not to mention there is hardly a time where a network is only going to have one writer for the entire show, so hire some minorities and get a well rounded team that actually represents what America looks like. I know that networks have a lot to do with this as well but writers still do have some say in it. One of the worst thing Writers/Producers can do is say that they don't see color when casting for their shows. This does not make you look like some Patron Saint of Minorities, it just shows that you are avoiding a real issue by trying to say you're not racist but you're not actually going to do anything to combat racism when you have the tools to do so. Being ignorant about something like this just about as harmful as being outright racist because you're still neglecting to include other minorities because you "don't see color".

But I digress...

Let me go back to last nights episode of Scandal "Molly, You In Danger, Girl". A lot happened in the episode, Olivia discovered Jake's secret of him spying on her, Huck got captured, beaten, and tied up in a small box, David’s life was yet again in danger, we found out that Osborne really had nothing to do with the Mole... but the one scene that stuck with me and still stands out is the fight that Cyrus and James had. It felt real. It didn't feel like 'oh this gay couple is having a fight about gay things', these are two fully realized characters that are fighting with each other over the betrayal that James feels from having to perjure himself in court in order to keep Cyrus out of jail. Trust is a basic necessity in any relationship whether heterosexual or homosexual, and without it there really is no relationship, just two people waiting for the other foot to drop. Watching the whole scene unfold I was able to see me in this relationship, I was able to see real relationship problems that I experience, that most people experience. The big difference however comes from this happening between two gay men in a serious relationship. I was able to relate because these are two people that are just like me! It's sad that I have to get this excited over such a small scene, something that is such a basic issue in any relationship but is hardly explored like this in a television show. Sure it was surrounding Cyrus helping rig an election and I'll never be in that position in my life, but those are just details because underneath it all its just about trust.

That's all it really comes to: trust. Sure, some other shows will try to have two gay characters explore the trust in their relationship but it always tends to revolve around the fact that they are two gay characters or even better they use the stereotype of gay promiscuity to drive the trust story (HI 'GLEE'!). You can argue that those are just details like I said with Scandal but how Scandal handles it makes so much of a difference. Sure the argument started about the Defiance scandal, but it quickly shifted away from that and into WHY James was having issues with it, and WHY he felt the way that he did. The writers didn't just stick to 'James is mad because of Defiance and can't trust Cyrus anymore' and they could have, but no, they treated the two like any other character on the show and began to peel back the layers of this couples relationship and of them as individuals within this relationship.

I also found it really kind of cute and kind of normal that James had Cyrus stay at a hotel for 23 days and that Cyrus' tipping point was that the maids started to learn his name and his pride was hurt from it.

I'm honestly kind of upset that I would even have to write this post because damn, we are in 2013 and the fight for marriage equality is stronger than ever, yet we can't even get a real gay relationship on TV.

Please don’t bring up The New Normal, that show is rooted in so much deep seeded homophobia that I consider it back tracking for the gay community (stereotype after stereotype after stereotype). But what more could we expect from the guy who created Glee and fully believes that it does great things for the gay community even though a character was de-gayed so that he could hook up with another blonde because they 'looked good together', not to mention all of the gay stereotypes that hardly have any sort of payoff in terms of trying to pass it off as satire. Okay, sidetracked again. Sorry.

I guess I really shouldn't be surprised about the lack of real gay characters on television when even though we have had "equality" for African Americans for some time now, you would be hard pressed to find a show where there is a Person of Color as the shows lead, or hell, more than one in the supporting cast. Again, look at Scandal and all of its glory. Look at what it is doing, it is showing that you can have a Woman of Color as a lead and a normal gay couple on primetime television and rock the ratings every night it's on, even when the episode is a repeat, or as Shonda likes to call it: Vintage. We are not an all white or heterosexual nation anymore (well we haven't been for a long while) and people WANT to see that reflected in the TV shows that they watch. People aren't avoiding TV shows where everyone isn't straight and white, Scandal has shown people could care less about that, they just want damn good writing. They want smart writing; they don't want to be talked down to. They don't want an after school special every week they tune into their favorite shows.

I also want to say, just in case it came across that way, that I in no way think that sexual orientation equality and race equality are the same thing or could even really be compared. Gay is not the new black. It can never be, especially when racism is still so evident in this country. The only way gay could EVER be considered the new black is if racism is completely abolished, and since people generally suck, I don't see that happening anytime soon.

I know I barely touched much on the issue of race on Scandal (or rather it's lack of issue) but I've read countless articles about it already and I feel like anything I say on here will just be a rehash of anything you have already read on it.

So I'll just say this: Thank you Shonda Rhimes.

Thank you Shonda for creating a show where race isn't something that is thrown in your face and over hyped, but rather that is embraced and if anyone has a problem with it they can just deal.

Thank you Shonda for having a relationship with two gay men that isn't defined by the fact that they are gay, but by the fact that they are human first. Thank you for accurately portraying what a regular everyday gay relationship is like. Thank you for creating someone that I can relate to in almost every way.

Also, thank you for a show with so many damn strong women who take shit from no one and stand up for themselves.

Thank you.

Here's to hoping that Scandal has as many seasons as Grey's Anatomy has had plus more because this is a show that I don't plan on letting go of.