It's Official: "Skins USA" Loses its Gay Male Character

In June, AfterElton.com reported that based on "sides" (portions of the script of a show or movie) for the US version of Skins, it appeared the show's gay male character — Maxxie in the UK series — had been replaced with a lesbian character.

Original sides for the show had indicated Skins USA would feature an American version of Maxxie, named Teo, but subsequent sides replaced Teo with a female character named Tea.

On Friday, MTV provided TV critics at the Television Critics Association Summer Tour with a screener showing the first fifteen minutes of the U.S. Skins pilot and indeed, Teo is gone, replaced by Tea who is a cheerleader. (In the UK version, Maxxie had been a dancer.)

Otherwise, based on those first fifteen minutes, very little else has changed and the U.S. version looks to be a very faithful adaptation of the UK series with the the portions provided to critics being an almost exact replication of the first episode of the UK version.

Why the change from a gay character to a lesbian one when almost everything else about the show remains the same? Given that the U.S. version will feature a lesbian character, and that MTV just received an excellent rating from GLAAD for the network's GLBT representation, concerns over having gay content seem unlikely have been a factor. 

That being said, the American  Skins appears to be such a faithful adaptation of the original, that the decision does seem puzzling. 

Previous attempts to get a comment from the show's producers have failed. However, the show will be presenting a panel next week at the TCA and Afterelton.com will ask about switch.

Skins USA will debut early in 2011.