A Gay Reveal, the "Southland" Facebook Page and the Five Stages of Grief

If you get a chance, check out the Southland Facebook page.

Ever since Tuesday night's episode and the eight second reveal of a main character in bed with another man (Oh the horror!) the show's fan page has been lit up with comments of surprise and shock.

You'd think somebody had died!

In fact, there seems to be more hand wringing over Officer Cooper digging dudes than there was over the untimely death of actor Kevin Alejandro's character Nate two weeks before.

Now a lot of fans commenting on the FB page were enlightened souls and already well aware of Cooper's orientation — they'd picked up on the various clues from season one, and even if not — could care less whose team Cooper bats for. But there's a whole other contingent of fans (mostly male) who it seems can only enjoy gritty cop dramas if they're completely queer-free. Or at least queer-free with respect to the characters they like.

Characters like Officer John Cooper for instance. Having this hard-ass tough guy cop (played brilliantly by actor Michael Cudlitz) show up in bed with friend "Caesar" is forcing some folks to disavow a character they loved and probably even identified with... or honestly reexamine their beliefs about what gay people are actually like.

Some of them are having a hard time with the process. They're acting out the five stages of grief...

First comes DENIAL....

Then comes ANGER

BARGAINING

DEPRESSION

... and finally ACCEPTANCE

*Note: Commenter names removed and avatar pics substituted.            

If you ever need a evidence of why it's so vitally important to have GLBT characters represented on television and in film — the last few days on the Southland Facebook page make a pretty persuasive case.

Congrats to the show for bringing such a complex and non-stereotypical gay character to television. And perhaps there's something to be said for their decision to seriously slow play details of Officer Cooper's private life thus far. It gave the homophobes a chance to fall for him.