General Hospital: Night Shift’s Matter-of-Fact Gay Romance

Adam Grimes, Chad Allen (Photo Credit: SoapNet/Getty Images/David Livingston)

When General Hospital: Night Shift decided to include a gay character as well as a gay romance in their second season, they also decided they didn’t want the storyline to revolve around coming out, homophobia, or struggles over self-acceptance. It was a good call on their part as neither Chad Allen nor Adam Grimes were interested in playing those sorts of parts.

And the Soapnet series has largely delivered on that promise. Dr. Kyle Julian, played by Grimes, is an intern at Port Charles General Hospital and while he faces many issues – long hours, difficult patients, and a troublesome relationship with his brother – Kyle’s sexual orientation isn’t one of his problems. Which isn’t too say it’s hidden away or completely trouble-free either.

Indeed, from Kyle’s very first episode, his sexuality is something handled very matter-of-factly, a topic that comes up as naturally as any other aspect of his personality. Not only is his being gay not an issue for himself, it’s also not one for his co-workers or his friends, although his parents aren't quite perfect when it comes to the issue.

But as is true with his friends, family, and co-workers who are single, Kyle’s dating status is a frequent topic of conversation, especially with Claire (Carrie Southworth), his fellow intern and best friend. On both the television episodes, as well as on special webisodes solely about Kyle and Claire, Kyle discusses guys, notices guys and on tonight’s episode, starts to fall for one.

Claire (Carrie Southworth) and Kyle (Adam Grimes)
All GH:NS pictures courtesy of SoapNet unless otherwise noted

That character is named Eric Whitlow and he finds himself in General Hospital awaiting a liver transplant. But Eric isn’t just any patient with a serious illness as indicated by the actor playing the part: out gay-fave Chad Allen who has joined the series for a four episode arc.

AfterElton.com conducted exclusive onset interviews with both Allen and Grimes on Allen’s last day of filming. Interestingly, the interviews were just prior to the characters first kiss and both men were in costume. For Grimes that meant surgical scrubs while Allen was rather distractingly wearing only a tank-top and pajama bottoms making the already attractive actor just that much more distracting to interview. For the record, neither actor seemed to think their impending kiss a particularly big deal.

Many viewers might be surprised to see Allen, a veteran of network TV series, theatrical movies, and stage taking on a soap opera role. Regarding that Allen said, “I have to admit when they called and asked me about going on, I was unsure. I didn’t know the show. I had never done soaps before. I didn’t know if I’d want to. I didn’t know if I’d like it. I talked to Sri Rao [GH’s headwriter] who’s really committed to presenting this relationship between Kyle and Eric just like every other relationship they’ve presented on this show. So he said he was really adamant it be an adult relationship.”