USA's "Facing Kate" Includes Gay Male Character

After going an entire year without having a single gay or bisexual man appear in their lineup, USA Network will be adding a gay male character to their fall schedule. Assuming the show isn't quickly canceled (unlikely on USA) this should help the network to improve on the "F" grade GLAAD gave them for their current lack of GLBT representation. 

The show is called Facing Kate and stars Sarah Shahi as Kate Reed, a former attorney who becomes a "mediator" because she feels attorneys often aren't helping people.

Thirty-two-year old Ethan Embry will play Kate's gay brother, Spencer who will appear in five of the first twelve episodes.

Facing Kate's creator Michael Sardo (pictured right) spoke with AfterElton.com about how the character came to be. Given that the show is set in San Francisco, Sardo felt "it would be a little disingenuous to do a show set in San Francisco without a gay character. But at the same time I wrote him to not play gay. Some people think gay is a personality type."

What kind of character will Spencer be? Sardo says, "He's a stay-at-home dad and we reference Terry who his is his partner, but we haven't seen Terry yet, but we will."

Indeed, it's being a parent that will be at the center of Spencer's story. Sardo felt that this day and age it was time to move beyond "coming out issues" and dealing with intolerance. "I think we're beyond — I know I'm beyond — the gay part of it being the issue," says Sardo. "That wasn't what intrigued me. What intrigued me was "if you're the same sex, how do you decide who stays home? And when change your mind how does that work?"

Adds Sardo:

It's 2010 and it's not unusual for someone who is gay to have a child. What I was interested in ... in a relationship where it's male/female, if the woman is a neurosurgeon and the man teaches gym, and they have a child, there is still a little assumption, well, isn't she going to stay home with the child? It is still very primeval with us.

Well, if they are the same sex and one is a lawyer and one is an investment banker. Say the lawyer stays home, but then he goes "This isn't for me." How do they decide? I was interested in that tussle.

And that tussle will extend beyond Spencer and his partner to Spencer's dad. Says Sardo, "We learn that his dad, who is very traditional, had no problem with him being gay, but when he resigned from the firm? He hated that."

Ethan Embry

Talking with Sardo it's clear he's given the issue a lot of thought. As to why he's so thoughtful, he says, "I was writing on a show [before] and half of the staff was gay and half wasn't. And the interesting thing was I was married with small children and the guys who were on the show were straight were talking about 'I went and got hammered this week and picked up a girl.' And the [gay] men who were on it all had long term partners."

"So I'd always wind up discussing [things] with [the gay men] like 'Hey, my wife and I, it's our anniversary, what's a good thing to do?' And they were 'You know what we did?'"

"I just had much more in common with them and the ones who have remained my friends, they are dealing with the same issues we are. I've been married sixteen years and I'd ask 'How to keep it fresh? Here's a great place to go. What's a good place for your kids?"

As for Ethan Embry, who plays Spencer, Sardo says Embry wasn't sure how to play him. Sardo says Embry would ask, "Is he gay?" And I'd say, he is, but don't play gay. Play a dad. That's all. For right now, you're Kate's brother and you're a dad."