Showtime orders new series with gay content

Gilchrist (pictured, right), born in London, England though currently living in Canada, made his first television appearance at age ten, ironically enough on an episode of Showtime’s Queer as Folk. He has since appeared on Life with Derek, Family Guy, and most recently on Rob Corddry’s short-lived sitcom The Winner. He has nearly a dozen film credits including Saint Ralph, Dead Silence and the upcoming Rainn Wilson comedy The Rocker.

Given Greenblatt's comments and the fact that cable networks such as Showtime are often more able to deal frankly with “delicate” subject matter such as younger gay teens, it seems probable that Marshall’s gayness will be dealt with frankly and not in a “very special way” sort of storyline that runs for three episodes and then disappears.

Indeed, Greenblatt said that is the network’s goal and where he believes the future of gay characters will be found — at least on his network. “I think what we’re going to see more of, as opposed to QAF with ten gay characters or The L Word with ten lesbian characters, I think were going to hopefully start seeing more and more shows where it is just part of the world, just another person in the universe of the show and in the case of most of our shows a lot isn’t made of it. It’s just a fact of life.”

Asked why Showtime has such a good track record with GLBT visibility with shows such as The Tudors, Weeds, QAF, and the ongoing series The L Word (Greenblatt also announced on Friday that a possible The L Word spin-off is in the works ), the entertainment president said, “We always are encouraging [diversity] and we try to make it organic and not force it. We are a network that needs to go places other networks don’t go and because there is very little gay [representation], or very many characters of color at all anywhere on TV, that is a place we can go. We have a large gay audience so we are very happy to go there and a lot of our shows have done it.”

Showtime's GLBT diversity has not gone unnoticed. In its most recent Network Responsibility Index, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) recently gave the network a "good" rating for its portrayal of gays and lesbians.

However positive, many of those gay characters and storylines have been relatively small, often receiving little screentime. Sanjay (Maulik Pancholy) has only appeared in 19 of Weeds’ 50 episodes, frequently for only a few minutes each episode while The Tudors recent gay storyline was one of many in a show with a very large cast. That storyline also recently ended in the characters’ deaths.

Edie Falco, Toni Collette

Both Nurse Jackie and The United States of Tara place their gay characters much closer to the central character and their storyline, thereby offering greater opportunity to integrate them into the show, giving them more screentime and possibly larger storylines.

Other good news regarding gay visibility coming from Showtime included Greenblatt’s announcement that Mary Louise Parker’s series Weeds would be returning for two more seasons; Weeds’ creator Jenji Kohan told AfterElton.com that in upcoming episodes from this season viewers could expect to see more of the pot-selling Sanjay, who will rejoin Nancy Botwin (Parker) and her family in their new Southern California locale.