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In a soap-operatic twist of fate, Jason accidentally shot and killed Delaney's sister. Kevin's homophobic parents went on to blame Kevin for Jason's subsequent imprisonment and insisted that Kevin seek reparative therapy to “cure” his homosexuality. Naturally, the treatment failed, but Kevin's mother came to accept him. But his father did not and Kevin's character was moved to the background of AMC. SoapCentral.com reports that Kevin was last seen working at Holidays, a restaurant that was blown up on the show in 1998. AMC executives insist that the character of Kevin was not killed in the blast, but his character has not been seen since.

While reparative therapy and (possible) death by explosion are hard to top, an even more dramatic gay teen storyline was introduced on All My Children in 2000. Bianca, the sixteen year old daughter of wildly popular AMC diva Erica Kane, came out as the first openly lesbian teenager on daytime television and was quickly met with a serious of disasters. After falling in love with and being rejected by her straight friend Maggie, Bianca was pursued by bisexual Lena (the first recurring bisexual character on daytime television), which led up to the first lesbian kiss on daytime television, shared by Bianca and Lena in 2003.

While such a momentous occasion could have easily led to the development of the first actual lesbian relationship on daytime television, instead Bianca was raped (and subsequently became pregnant) by Lena 's spurned boyfriend. Then Lena tried to kill herself and her relationship with Bianca fell apart. Later, Bianca resumed her cat and mouse game with her straight friend Maggie, who cancelled her wedding to an abusive boyfriend to skip town with Bianca in February 2005. Bianca eventually made a brief return and announced that she and Maggie were indeed a couple. But this revelation came conveniently after the Bianca-Maggie storyline had run its course and no longer required onscreen development.

AMC creator Agnes Nixon told The Advocate in 2000 that out lesbian Chastity Bono's memoir was the inspiration for the Bianca storyline, and she hoped that outing an already-established character as gay would make for a more integrated storyline. Choosing Bianca, a familiar character who audiences had watched grow up, for the lesbian plot line was a bold move. Unfortunately it was undercut by the rape/pregnancy plot development, and Bianca's eventual departure from the show marked yet another missed opportunity to develop a recurring, three-dimensional gay character on daytime television.

The representation of queer characters and all of their human complexities is particularly important when considering that the viewing audience for soap operas is enormous. The Museum of Broadcast Communication asserts that the soap opera is “the most effective and enduring broadcast advertising vehicle ever devised. It is also the most popular genre of television drama in the world today and probably in the history of world broadcasting: no other form of television fiction has attracted more viewers in more countries over a longer period of time.”

And the make-up of that audience has changed significantly in the last twenty years, with 30 percent of the audience made of people “outside the core demographic group of eighteen to forty-nine year-old women, including substantial numbers of teenage boys and girls (up to fifteen percent of the total audience for some soaps) and adult men (particularly those over fifty).” (From the Museum of Broadcast Communication)

In 1998, Jeffrey Epstein, a staff writer for Soap Opera News discouraged the idea that there would be more gay or lesbian representation to come on daytime television. He told The Advocate that "I don't know that a daytime soap would ever include a lesbian story line. These shows appeal primarily to women, who may be more comfortable with gay men than with the idea of lesbian relationships." He added, "Soaps provide an escapist fantasy for their audiences. Producers are hesitant to bring in gay characters because they don't really feed a lot of women's romantic fantasies." His remarks reflect attitudes and assumptions that have no doubt limited the number of gay and lesbian characters on daytime television for many years.

But as the viewing demographic for soaps continues to grow and diversify, generalizations like those of Epstein could prove to be meaningless. The popularity of the Bianca storyline on All My Children was proof that audiences were more than ready for a lesbian relationship, and his assessment of women's romantic fantasies in regards to gay male characters may prove to be equally outdated. After all, in both of the current General Hospital and As the World Turns gay storylines, the young gay men are coming out first to female confidants, a role many heterosexual women themselves may play in the lives of real life gay male friends.

With their melodramatic storylines and overblown characters, soap operas have long been an underestimated genre. But the representation of queer characters on soap operas offers a significant opportunity to educate and enlighten millions of viewers who might otherwise have no (knowing) contact with gay, lesbian, or bisexual people.

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