The State of Gay TV Today

Plotnick: I’m so thankful for reality TV for how it puts gay characters out there. For the 13-year-old [who’s gay] and watching a show like this with their parents, they can know this show is something they can watch with Mom and Dad and get the stamp of approval. It sends a signal to the kids that [gay people] exist and they have approval. It’s one thing for these kids to go watch something down in the basement, but it’s so much better when the whole family is in the living room, watching something together.

It’s an issue I have with Drawn Together. The two producers are straight and really care about Xandir, and I feel sometimes like he isn’t as crazy as he used to be, and I’ll talk to the producers and it turns out that they don’t want to offend anybody. And I appreciate that, even though we talk about anal sex a lot on Drawn Together and part of that is that young boys will hear that and get grossed out. If you watch the characters on the show, everybody around him is supportive and nice, except for one, who’s basically this lunatic a------.

Jensen: If Drawn Together didn’t include jokes about gay sex, it would be exclusionary. In a way, it’s normalizing gay sex. The show can joke about gay people having sex just like they joke about straight people having sex.

Fuller: I love that these two straight guys [producing Drawn Together] are equal-opportunity offenders. They’re sensitive enough to offend in very specific ways.

Jensen: It seems like even though there are not currently a lot of gay characters on television, the shows that do have them get a lot of criticism from the gay community — shows like Will & Grace and Noah’s Arc. Do you think gay viewers expect too much of these shows?

Fuller: Yes and no. I’m one of those gay guys who found Queer as Folk incredibly offensive and insulting. I liked the British version, but I’d watch [the remake] and say, “I don’t want these guys representing me.” They’re at sex clubs and on crystal meth or acting like petulant children. It’s basically a bunch of faggots behaving badly. I didn’t want them representing me, basically, because I felt they just acted like petulant children. Noah’s Arc is a much more mature show in the way its characters behave.

Plotnick: It’s frustrating when a gay person makes a show that has a gay stereotype on it. Wait — does Lovespring have a stereotype? Oh, well, no, I guess it doesn’t. But in a sense we’re all backseat drivers when it comes to the shows we watch. If someone’s gay and calling the shots, we want to know why they’d give us a character who is a stereotype … and I don’t think I’m wrong for being offended when I watch a show that does that.

Fuller: I think there’s something unique and funny and not at all loathsome about the Sam Pancake character on Lovespring.

Plotnick: What boggled my mind is that Lovespring is a show with a gay lead character. Essentially, Sam’s role was a lead role, and so little mention was made of Lovespring in the gay press in that respect. And if they did mention it, it was buried in larger articles.

Jensen: We talked about that! We did a review of the show.

Plotnick: [Laughs.] Oh, then you’re pardoned. But I feel like when Lovespring started, it show was neglected in some ways. I feel like the cover of The Advocate that week was some guy with his shirt off or something.

Romine: We counted the show here at GLAAD, and we certainly counted Sam’s character as a closeted-but-married character, but we don’t count the roles where it was a gay actor playing a straight character [such as the Lovespring roles played by Plotnick or Jane Lynch].

Fuller: You know I feel like Lovespring ended its season really well. It started out strong and really kicked it into high gear during the second half. It’s a fantastic show. You should be very proud.

Plotnick: Well, thank you.

Jensen: You know, I was surprised by the response to that question. I expected to hear that we should take it easy on the shows that feature stereotypes. But that’s not what I’m hearing. I’m hearing that we need to do better in terms of quality and stereotypes. I think it’s a sign our movement has matured and that we have had enough different characters that we do feel free to criticize more. Like Queer as Folk — it’s not the image we’re promoting for ourselves. I was also very hard on Will & Grace. Jack was not a character I identified with.

Fuller: I thought it was a really funny show, and it certainly made leaps and bounds for the gay community. But I’m much more forgiving to Will & Grace than I am to Queer as Folk. Will & Grace was so broadly drawn, but Queer as Folk was pretending to be the every gay man, and it wasn’t.

Jensen: I was certainly happy when Will & Grace first debuted. It had the first gay lead on TV. … As time went on, though, I just found it less deserving.

Fuller: Will got political. When he broke up with that guy who was in the closet, it was more of the characters acting like entitled, petulant children, thinking their way was the only way to do this. Coming out and being comfortable for some people is like second nature. We have dignity and pride, but we can’t undervalue the hurdles other people have to come over in their own lives.

You can’t go wrong with sensitivity and wit, but if you’re throwing the characters under the bus for a joke, that’s wrong.