AfterElton.com - Anatomy of America's First Gay TV Channel

here! is a bit of an enigma: a pay TV channel devoted exclusively to gay content in a time when gay characters have all but disappeared on network TV, and the most anti-gay Republican president has just been re-elected to office. What is it like trying to develop content for the channel in this context? To market it? How well is the channel succeeding so far, and how do they expect to compete against other gay TV content?

To answer these questions, I spent a recent afternoon at the offices of here! (formerly here! TV) in Los Angeles, talking to the people behind America's first gay TV channel.

CEO Paul Colichman founded here! Films as a film distribution company ten years ago out of frustration at not being able to find outlets for his gay-themed movies, like Gods and Monsters. here! was born seven years later as another outlet for these films, and to fill the need for quality gay content on TV. "There is a hunger in the gay community for gay TV," Colichman asserts. "It’s like this thing we’ve been deprived of in a way. We want to see our stories told on television, which we really haven’t, except sporadically."

The name of the channel reflects Colichman’s philosophy that “it’s not about coming out, it’s not a political statement, we’re just here. It’s time for everyone to just handle that.” The channel tries to offer an alternative to the gay art films that are focused on being gay, and focus on gay thrillers, gay action films, and gay family films instead.

Besides running gay and lesbian-themed movies like Laughing Matters, Go Fish and Big Eden, here! is also investing in its own original movies and series. The light-hearted family drama Too Cool for Christmas, which debuts on the channel this month, tells the story of two gay dads whose rebellious teenage daughter learns a lesson from Santa. The upcoming series Dante’s Cove revolves around two gay men trying to solve a mystery in a small town that is populated by a number of gay men and lesbians, a lesbian soap called The Complex is in development, and here! Family, a show about gay parents hosted by Michelle Darne, has already begun airing on the channel.

The woman in charge of developing these series is here!’s Vice President of Development Meredith Kadlec, who has been culling through thousands of scripts and story ideas in the last several months. “We’re looking for some genre-bending material: traditional action or horror films with gay characters,” she explains. “Putting gay characters in places you haven’t seen them before is really exciting, and we’re finding that writers are excited about this idea, too.”

This reflects Colichman’s vision to create ”movies where the main characters just happen go to be gay, like an asteroid movie where the hero happens to be a gay man, or a thriller in which a lesbian has to rescue her partner.” Kadlec elaborates: “Being gay is not the only thing going on with these characters. They are gay and dealing with the loss of a parent, or gay and saving the world from disaster. Three-dimensional characters are really important to us.”

here! PR Director Stephen Macias ascribes even loftier goals to their work, which is, in part, "documenting and preserving our history.”

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