LGBT Themes, Stories And Characters On TV

[possibilities]

Sometimes I forget someone doesn't know about me being a dyke because I'm totally out and not used to passing, but it doesn't always come up in conversation especially when I don't have a lover on my arm or something at a particular moment. I also seem to pass more now that I'm disabled-- I think I look the same an act the same, but people will desexualize you and just not think of it. At this point, I tend to find it funny when the "Oh, I thought you knew!" moment comes up. If you want to be private, be private. You don't owe anyone anything. I used to be frustrated about becoming invisible after being obvious, but finally I just let go of it and figure however we conduct our lives needs to be comfortable, and allow us to relax, and not be dictated by some external standard.

[Irlandesa]

On 7/14/2017 at 2:49 PM, galax-arena said:

I've seen some debate over whether Fuller assumed that Dekker was out already or not. I don't know what the hell's going on on that front, so I won't talk about the ethics of outing. Instead I'll say congrats, Dekker. I remember him from The Secret Circle (yeah, yeah... I know... lmao). 

And I've seen some debate about whether or not he was actually referring to Zachary Quinto, who was not publicly out at the time, but Dekker inserted himself into the narrative.

[HunterHunted]

16 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

And I've seen some debate about whether or not he was actually referring to Zachary Quinto, who was not publicly out at the time, but Dekker inserted himself into the narrative.

If you watched Heroes, the only person it could be was Dekker. The plot was absolutely leading to his character coming out. His character had been bullied for being perceived as gay. The character bonded with Hayden Panettiere's about them both being weirdos and freaks. Then his character made this sudden weird pivot when his memory was wiped. Dekker later went on to play teen John Connor in the Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Quinto's character was largely asexual during the first season.

[Luckylyn]

5 hours ago, nosleepforme said:

I don't remember much from Heroes, but I remember that Bryan Fuller gave a lot of interviews around the time in which he explicitly stated that Claire's friend was gay and there were even articles that were about how Dekker's management threatened to pull him out of the show, because he was up for the lead role in The Sarah Connor Chronicles and they thought him being gay on Heroes would decrease his chances of taking on an iconic action role.

 

Speaking of iconic action roles, has there ever been a big gay action hero? I can't really think of one. That would intrigue me to see a gay character kicking ass in a major motion picture.

I think Deadpool is supposed to be bisexual, but I don't know if that will be reflected in any of the movies planned.  He's pretty committed to Vanessa but an ex-boyfriend showing up in a movie would be fantastic. 

Captain Jack Harkness of Doctor Who and Torchwood is a pansexual action hero on television.  I consider Captain Jack and Ianto Jones to be an iconic tv couple and both were badasses.

Edited July 28, 2017 by Luckylyn

[Proclone]

On 7/14/2017 at 7:10 PM, JBC344 said:

I guess my point is more that there are some of us who are perceived as being "in the closet" because "everyone" doesn't for whatever reason know that we are gay.  It's more the adage that "Just because you don't know something doesn't mean its a secret."  It's also an unfair balance with straight actors.  If a straight actor doesn't want to talk about their personal life because they believe in keeping that side of their life private as a public figure that seems to be respected more so than not.  When a gay person expresses the same ideal, it is often looked at as they are trying to hide their sexuality or keep things quiet.  Don't get me wrong a lot of people especially gay male actors are in fear but I do believe there is a difference.

I guess it is more for me personally I feel that I sometimes am robbed of being a "private person" without the fear of being labeled in the closet.  I have no issues with my sexuality or showing up in public with a man I am dating but I'm not the type to openly talk about my relationships.  And for the record when I dated women back in the day I didn't have a desire to talk about them either.

I agree it is a weird double standard.  If a straight actor keeps their private life private then they're lauded, if a gay or lesbian actor doesn't publicly proclaim it, they're hiding who they are. And they must be ashamed of who they are or are afraid.  I personally see a big difference in being discrete about your romantic relationships and actively hiding who you are.  I happen to be bisexual, am I out of the closet?  Probably not by any metric that Hollywood would use.  I don't talk often talk about my relationships at work and yes part of that is because I don't want to be the topic of gossip.  I'm certainly not ashamed of who I am, but I don't want to be spoken about behind my back either, especially since I think a lot of people (at least in my corner of the world) are less accepting of bisexuality then they are of homosexuality, but that's another topic.  So most people I know, just assume I'm straight.  If I'm asked (and I have been), I'll never lie, but I don't broadcast it either.  But I also don't broadcast that I collect coins or practice martial arts unless someone specifically asks me about my hobbies, and to be honest I don't really see much of a difference. My romantic relationships are just aspects of my life and my sexual orientation is just a part of who I am.   I think we like to distill people down, especially celebs, to being this one thing.  So, if an actor is gay or lesbian then they're a "Gay" actor and we tend to ignore everything else they might be.  While in general, I think we as a society are more open minded, forcing people to be defined by who they love or like to have sex with, even if we define it positively, can be damaging as well. 

Edited July 29, 2017 by Proclone

[HunterHunted]

15 hours ago, nosleepforme said:

Speaking of iconic action roles, has there ever been a big gay action hero? I can't really think of one. That would intrigue me to see a gay character kicking ass in a major motion picture.

10 hours ago, Luckylyn said:

I think Deadpool is supposed to be bisexual, but I don't know if that will be reflected in any of the movies planned.  He's pretty committed to Vanessa but an ex-boyfriend showing up in a movie would be fantastic. 

Captain Jack Harkness of Doctor Who and Torchwood is a pansexual action hero on television.  I consider Captain Jack and Ianto Jones to be an iconic tv couple and both were badasses.

 

John Constantine is bisexual. He's been depicted in a movie starring Keanu Reeves and a TV show starring Matt Ryan. His bisexuality was not addressed in either. Although, Ryan's Constantine does exist in the Flarrowverse and his bisexuality could be addressed if he shows up again.

There was a season one episode of Legends of Tomorrow that implied that Rip Hunter and Jonah Hex might have had some romantic feelings for each other in the Flarrowverse. I don't think they'll go any farther than hinting because I think WB would still like to make a Jonah Hex movie.

There are persistent rumors that someone wants to option Warren Ellis' Authority as a movie. The Authority was part of the Wildstorm universe. A decent amount of the Wildstorm and Milestone universes has been incorporated into the DC universe. The Authority is hyper violent and its OTP is Midnighter and Apollo, gay analogues of Batman and Superman. WB is still trying to get a half decent movie featuring their characters that we're already familiar with. I can't imagine that they'd spend a ton of effort or money adapting a bunch of characters who are completely unknown outside of comics circles.

Ex-Machina has been optioned a couple of times. It's about a city employee who is in an accident that fuses him with alien technology that allows him to control technology. He becomes a super hero known as The Great Machine. He leverages his heroing to become a politician and eventually ends up as mayor of New York. It's hinted in the series that he is gay, but closeted.

Edited July 29, 2017 by HunterHunted

[supposebly]

I think that coming out publicly even 10 years ago was still not only a process to get people who know you used to the fact that your dating pool might be a little different.

For a lot of people I would think it is also partially a political statement in a way. For a public and also not-so-public person, it is/was also about encouraging more people to come out, to serve as an example in addition to all the other reasons why one "comes out". In short, to normalize being LGBT.

Once that isn't necessary anymore, and not being hetero is simply some aspect of a person that we may or may not know about, the same as how many siblings they have, then "coming out" in that sense might not exist anymore.

So, to get this back to TV, the more the merrier! I might be getting sick of superheroes on TV and movies but I would love to have a gay superhero who might be saving a damsel of the same sex. We have so many cheesy unrealistic hetero superhero romances, bring on the cheesy unrealistic LGBT superhero romances! And please, without other characters constantly commenting on it. 

[Luckylyn]

I remember watching a soap from another country years ago, and there was what I thought was a unique take on the coming out story.  A woman finds out her son is gay when the guy he's dating drops by to pick the son up.  She feels hurt because her son never came out to her.  His response was irritation because he didn't think being gay was something he should have to announce to anyone.  He said something like his sister didn't have to come out to their mother as straight so why should he have to come out as gay.   He said he'll date whoever he wants and people to will figure out he's gay without him having to make it a special announcement.  I remember thinking he had a great point.    

[methodwriter85]

I still remember Thomas Dekker's cameo as a gay kid who wins a date with a male "teen" heartthrob on The WB's teen parody show Grosse Pointe from all those years ago. Can't say I'm surprised.

[supposebly]

A post in the movie forum about the perception that Henry Cavill might or might not be gay and how that possibility might have influenced how he is perceived playing Superman made me think of John Barrowman.

While not playing a superhero, is his character on Arrow straight? And if so, did anyone ever care that he is out and about playing a straight character? Don't make me go to the Arrow forum or watch the show, I can't stand Stephen Arnell. One look at his face and I fall asleep. My crush on JB notwithstanding.

[festivus]

His character is straight. Just speaking for myself I never think about him being gay in real life when I'm watching Malcolm Merlyn and I follow him on facebook where he posts all kinds of things about his life. But then again I always bought NPH as being the huge womanizer Barney in HIMYM. So I might not be the best person to ask. JMO is that if you're a good actor the audience shouldn't have any problem with a gay actor playing a straight character. People will believe it the other way around. I do want to hear more opinions on this.

[supposebly]

On 8/3/2017 at 11:45 AM, festivus said:

His character is straight. Just speaking for myself I never think about him being gay in real life when I'm watching Malcolm Merlyn and I follow him on facebook where he posts all kinds of things about his life. But then again I always bought NPH as being the huge womanizer Barney in HIMYM. So I might not be the best person to ask. JMO is that if you're a good actor the audience shouldn't have any problem with a gay actor playing a straight character. People will believe it the other way around. I do want to hear more opinions on this.

Agreed. As long as an actor can sell whatever character they are playing, I don't really care about their dating pool in real life.  I was just wondering if people were discussing it wrt his role in Arrow.

[Annber03]

I'll co-sign the "don't think about an actor's sexuality when they're playing a character" thing. Another good example is David Hyde Pierce-totally brought Niles being madly in love with Daphne on "Frasier". 

[janie jones]

On 8/4/2017 at 0:53 PM, Annber03 said:

I'll co-sign the "don't think about an actor's sexuality when they're playing a character" thing. Another good example is David Hyde Pierce-totally brought Niles being madly in love with Daphne on "Frasier". 

I really don't understand how for some people the actor's sexuality does matter.  When I'm watching some actor play a murderer, I'm never like, "Gee I wonder if he kills people in real life" or "I don't buy it because I know he doesn't kill people in real life." 

[Annber03]

Exactly. For whatever reason, some people just seem to have a really hard time separating the actor from the character, and forget what the whole point of acting is. 

(Mind, every great once in a while there are actors out there who wind up being quite similar to their characters in some form or another, but for the most part, there generally is enough of a difference to where it shouldn't be an issue.)

[possibilities]

I just think it's a problem for people who are too ill at ease with non-hetero sexuality that they can't stop thinking about it if anything at all sets them off, and knowledge of an actors orientation sets them off because the whole issue sets them off.

[Irlandesa]

32 minutes ago, possibilities said:

I just think it's a problem for people who are too ill at ease with non-hetero sexuality that they can't stop thinking about it if anything at all sets them off, and knowledge of an actors orientation sets them off because the whole issue sets them off.

Sometimes but I think there are also some people who like to "win" at guessing an actor's sexuality.  Or like to use it as a weapon as to why someone else's favorite couple doesn't have chemistry.  I mean some of the biggest offenders have been gay people on the internet.  It might be some self-hating homophobia in some cases but I think it's more nuanced than that too.

But it is typically in regards to gay men.  It's pretty rare when I hear someone say that an actress pings their lesbiandar and even rarer that it does to the point where they're found unbelievable in heterosexual relationships.

[possibilities]

11 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

 

But it is typically in regards to gay men.  It's pretty rare when I hear someone say that an actress pings their lesbiandar and even rarer that it does to the point where they're found unbelievable in heterosexual relationships.

That's because the industry only casts extreme fems. The second any woman appears on screen who is even slightly butch, everyone decides she's a dyke and any male who's interested in her is not credible. We saw that on Glee, with Coach Bieste where it was an actual plot point. I don't actually know the orientation of the actress, but it was such an extreme example of the lesbiandar trope, it stuck in my mind. And it's hard to think of butch characters on screen, just generally. And certainly not actresses who present that way and get cast at all.

[galax-arena]

Quote

That's because the industry only casts extreme fems.

Oh jesus, this reminds me of a comment I saw praising The Bold Type for having more femme lesbians/bis she (the commenter) could relate to, and how it was different from other shows with lesbian/bi characters. Lol que??? I think femme invisibility can definitely be a thing out there, but people are kidding themselves if they think it extends to the media. 

FTR, I love the Bold Type and I still think it breaks the mold in having a relationship between two lgb women of color. But they're not unique or revolutionary for having those characters be femme. 

Edited August 8, 2017 by galax-arena

[Unusual Suspect]

On 04/10/2016 at 0:12 PM, DisneyBoy said:

Did Star Trek have any gay characters? I feel like there might have been some coded ones in there but nothing is coming to mind. Sulu was written as straight, and Odo seemed interested in Troy's mother from what I remember. It just feels like the kind of franchise that would have been forward thinking about that sort of thing.

 

Edit: Wait - Jadzia Dax was bi on DS9, right?

Well, the new show, Discovery, will have a gay couple on it. And the last movie has Sulu with a husband and child, in a blink and you will miss it moment.

I suppose you can technically call Jadzia bisexual, but Star Trek's rep on queer representation is not good. One of the execs for the various series was steadfastly against any gay characters, and DS9 only got away with it for one episode where Jadzia met up with a prior romantic flame, but from back when they were a heterosexual couple. And then there was a host of depraved bisexuals (Warning. TV Tropes link) in the Evil Mirror Universe.

[Proclone]

On 8/7/2017 at 10:59 PM, Irlandesa said:

Sometimes but I think there are also some people who like to "win" at guessing an actor's sexuality.  Or like to use it as a weapon as to why someone else's favorite couple doesn't have chemistry.  I mean some of the biggest offenders have been gay people on the internet.  It might be some self-hating homophobia in some cases but I think it's more nuanced than that too.

But it is typically in regards to gay men.  It's pretty rare when I hear someone say that an actress pings their lesbiandar and even rarer that it does to the point where they're found unbelievable in heterosexual relationships.

I actually stumbled upon a video on youtube of two lesbians discussing Kristin Stewart and how she needs to just come out of the closet already (it was obviously posted prior to Kristin's "I'm totally gay now," comment on SNL).  They also made a comments to the effect that they had always known she was a lesbian because they were lesbians and "had eyes" so they could just tell.  Granted the women we're being hyperbolic to be funny, but I just kept thinking, why should some celebrity come out just to prove these two women right?  The tone of the video was basically that all lesbian actors should just come out of the closet, and those who simply choose not discuss their sexuality are just taking a cop-out.  They cite Jodie Foster as a celebrity that, "came out by not coming out."  It goes back to the question, why must celebrities come out?  And it's wrapped up celebrity culture and needing to know everything about their lives, but it seems kind of wrong.  In this particular video the woman mention several times they are not "outing" Stewart because she's already out, she just hasn't said it yet.  Which may have been true, but Kristin Stewart seems like such a shy private person, that I've always felt a little bad for her (and I hope that her decision to come out was hers alone).  She was thrust into the spotlight at a young age and obviously was never comfortable with it and then got made fun of and accused of being rude and standoffish, when, to me at least, she just seemed really shy and a little socially awkward in interviews (and as someone who was very shy when they were young I can kind of relate).  Anyway the entire idea of "knowing" a celebrity's sexual orientation and discussing how they should come out already rubbed me the wrong way. I still don't know why in this day in age anyone needs to "come out".  If someone isn't hiding their relationships but rather chooses not to publicly talk about them, why isn't that OK?

[Annber03]

Yeah, I've never gotten that whole attitude, either. People should come out if and when they want to, in the way they choose, and to the people they most want to tell/feel most comfortable telling. I totally get the importance of seeing more openly LGBT people out there as inspiration for those who've yet to come out, of course, and showing the public at large how normal it is. But I don't get how forcing somebody to come out regardless of whether or not they're ready or want to is going to help with that. 

[Proclone]

3 hours ago, Annber03 said:

Yeah, I've never gotten that whole attitude, either. People should come out if and when they want to, in the way they choose, and to the people they most want to tell/feel most comfortable telling. I totally get the importance of seeing more openly LGBT people out there as inspiration for those who've yet to come out, of course, and showing the public at large how normal it is. But I don't get how forcing somebody to come out regardless of whether or not they're ready or want to is going to help with that. 

YMMV, but in the past I think it really was important for people to come out, to show how LGBT people are just like everyone else.  Today, I'm of two minds about it.  If someone (a celebrity or not) wants to publicly say that they're gay/lesbian/bi, then good on them, but straight people aren't expected to come out and announce their straightness.  Expecting or thinking that someone should to talk about their sexuality or relationship just because they're gay/lesbian/bi seems like a bit of a double standard and only reinforces the idea that being LGBT is something other than normal.

Maybe I'm weird, but I kind of see celebrities like acquaintances from work.  If they want to tell me a funny story about their friends or family occasionally that's cool.  If they don't that's cool as well.  If they prefer to keep they're private life out of work, I'm OK with that as long as they do their job well but if I do hear through the grapevine they're a real asshole outside of work, I reserve the right to not like them very much. 

Edited August 9, 2017 by Proclone
because their and they're aren't the same word

[selkie]

On 8/8/2017 at 10:36 AM, possibilities said:

That's because the industry only casts extreme fems. The second any woman appears on screen who is even slightly butch, everyone decides she's a dyke and any male who's interested in her is not credible. We saw that on Glee, with Coach Bieste where it was an actual plot point. I don't actually know the orientation of the actress, but it was such an extreme example of the lesbiandar trope, it stuck in my mind. And it's hard to think of butch characters on screen, just generally. And certainly not actresses who present that way and get cast at all.

 

Big Boo on Orange is the New Black ended up with a pretty substantial role as the series progressed, but that's my list of one. And Lea DeLaria should be getting a lot more work than she does, Boo's scenery-chewing and all. But then that's Netflix, where there seems to be more room for going outside the usual series boundaries. 

[galax-arena]

In its season 4 premiere last night, Fresh Off the Boat had Nicole come out to Eddie. Pretty cool, although it should be noted that Nicole is very much a peripheral/side character; when I told one of my friends that a (female) character had come out on FOTB, she assumed I was talking about Constance Wu's character and I felt bad for getting her hopes up lmao. Anyway, Nicole is Honey's stepdaughter and the girl that Eddie's had a crush on since season 1. They had this exchange:

Eddie: "So when did you turn gay?"

Nicole: "You don't turn, I'm not a werewolf." 

[possibilities]

I admit I got pretty excited about that turn of events. I hope they give her a larger role now that she's got more to her than just "the hot, unattainable older teen next door"

[galax-arena]

Jeff Yang, Hudson's dad, has said that Nicole does have an arc over the season, including an episode centered around her coming out. He also says that he genuinely can't think of anything like Nicole's upcoming arc on sitcom television... but he's also a straight guy so I'm taking his words with a grain of salt. That's not really meant as an insult, it's just that, well, I remember when straight Hollywood was falling all over themselves to pat themselves on the back for the Beauty and the Beast movie lmao. 

[biakbiak]

Hudson's dad gives interviews?

[paulvdb]

I haven't read anything by him but according to Wikipedia

Quote

Jeff Yang is an American writer, journalist, businessman, and business/media consultant who writes the "Tao Jones" column for the Wall Street Journal.[2] Previously, he was the "Asian Pop" columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle.

So I guess he is sort of famous on his own and not just because his son is an actor.

[galax-arena]

Yeah, I follow Asian-American pop culture so I was aware of Jeff long before I was aware of Hudson. 

[biakbiak]

On Thursday, October 05, 2017 at 6:50 AM, galax-arena said:

Yeah, I follow Asian-American pop culture so I was aware of Jeff long before I was aware of Hudson. 

Interesting, I know who Jeff Yang is I just didn't realize he was Hudson's fatger.

[galax-arena]

Disney will be featuring its first gay main character in season 2 of Andi Mack

It will be interesting to see if Cyrus will eventually be allowed to have a reciprocal love interest - the storyline makes it sound like he's going to be crushing on someone who's straight (or, if not 100% straight, still not reciprocated because of Jonah/Andi) - but even if he doesn't, this is progress from a channel that gave us Ryan "totally coded as gay but god forbid we ever acknowledge it" Evans on High School Musical. 

Edited October 26, 2017 by galax-arena

[HunterHunted]

On 11/21/2017 at 2:22 AM, nosleepforme said:

True Blood's Rutina Wesley apparently came out. Good for her.

I don't think I knew that Rutina had divorced her husband so reading the headline made me wonder if her husband knew.

[JustaPerson]

I stumbled on a BBC crime drama called London Spy which aired in 2015 starring Ben Winshaw where he plays a club kid named Danny (who's like a human puppy) who falls for serious-minded banker Alex, only to have him disappear and revealed to be in MI6. Danny decides to investigate Alex's disappearance and engage in espionage himself. It's only 5 episodes and I haven't finished it, but I could have watched an entire series just on them falling in love and navigating a relationship without the spy stuff. 

Edited January 25, 2018 by JustaPerson

[festivus]

1 hour ago, JustaPerson said:

I stumbled on a BBC crime drama called London Spy which aired in 2015 starring Ben Winshaw where he plays a club kid named Danny (who's like a human puppy) who falls for serious-minded banker Alex, only to have him disappear and revealed to be in MI6. Danny decides to investigate Alex's disappearance and engage in espionage himself. It's only 5 episodes and I haven't finished it, but I could have watched an entire series just on them falling in love and navigating a relationship without the spy stuff. 

I felt the same way about it when I watched it. 

[JustaPerson]

On 1/24/2018 at 11:32 PM, festivus said:

I felt the same way about it when I watched it. 

I just finished it and the moral of this story is definitely when Ben Winshaw cries, I cry.

[HunterHunted]

Lee Pace has decided to own his queer identity.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lee-pace-sexuality-interview-follow-up_us_5a9d8f34e4b0479c0255e329

I will say I'm a little put off by his irritation at the question of how he identifies. If an interview subject says like he did "I think it's important that gay actors play gay characters," he's got to expect a follow up question, especially given Pace's roles. "You've played so many queer characters; how do you identify?" This is a logical follow-up question. A journalist would be bad at their job if they didn't ask that question after his huge lead in.

And guess what? James Franco gets this same question because he's obsessed with gay sex.

I like Pace. I think he's a talented actor, but only an asshole says something akin to queer actors should play queer parts in these projects and then bristles when the interviewer notes that he's playing one of these parts and asks if he's queer. I mean come on. No one deserves to be outed, but he outed his own damn self. The only person he should be pissed at is himself.

Edited March 9, 2018 by HunterHunted

[janie jones]

I had no idea he hadn't already been owning it!

[Rinaldo]

Like many (perhaps many of us in everyday life too), it hadn't been a secret really -- he was out in his everyday life, he just hadn't made an official statement for publication to the world. Actually Ian McKellen accidentally outed him in print a while back, remarking happily how many out gay men were acting in The Hobbit, and naming names. But it didn't seem to expand from there.

And I'm not going to fault Pace for his choices thus far, or for momentarily being tongue-tied and not finding the ideal words when unexpectedly challenged. By now choosing to "own it," he knows he has effectively ended any chance of being cast as a conventional leading man on film. (And unlike a Nathan Lane or Sean Hayes or many another name, he probably had had a real shot at that.) That remains the disheartening reality in The Biz.

[HunterHunted]

2 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

By now choosing to "own it," he knows he has effectively ended any chance of being cast as a conventional leading man on film. (And unlike a Nathan Lane or Sean Hayes or many another name, he probably had had a real shot at that.) That remains the disheartening reality in The Biz.

His fellow (now) out Hobbit alum, Luke Evans, is still getting leads. He was the best thing in the live action Beauty & the Beast. And Luke's return to the closet was really sloppy and messy AF. I think Pace may still get leads, but he's never really been up for the biggest parts.

[Silver Raven]

Ian McKellen outed Lee Pace back when they were both making The Hobbit.

Pace was heartbreaking as transgender performer Calpernia Addams in Soldier's Girl.

[JBC344]

2 hours ago, Silver Raven said:

Ian McKellen outed Lee Pace back when they were both making The Hobbit.

Pace was heartbreaking as transgender performer Calpernia Addams in Soldier's Girl.

Still to this day one of my favorite performances ever by an actor, his portrayal as Calpernia is just perfection.

[Danny Franks]

I finally caught up on The Good Place, and am so disappointed that they're going with Eleanor/Chidi as their main pairing, rather than Eleanor/Tahani. They've made no bones about the fact Eleanor is into Tahani, but they treat it as a throwaway gag while going for the far less interesting pairing. Disappointed, but not surprised.

[HunterHunted]

One of the stranger LGBT characters from this season is Dangerboat from the Tick. He's the Artificial Intelligence of the boat/headquarters/partner (think a bigger KITT from Knight Rider) of an ultraviolent gun-toting vigilante named Overkill. Dangerboat identifies as male and knows he's attracted to other men. Dangerboat develops a crush on another hero and realizes he's acting like a creeper whenever the other hero is onboard by using his onboard sensors to monitor the other hero at all times.

https://decider.com/2018/02/23/the-tick-dangerboat-arthur/

[BW Manilowe]

On 8/8/2017 at 11:36 AM, possibilities said:

That's because the industry only casts extreme fems. The second any woman appears on screen who is even slightly butch, everyone decides she's a dyke and any male who's interested in her is not credible. We saw that on Glee, with Coach Bieste where it was an actual plot point. I don't actually know the orientation of the actress, but it was such an extreme example of the lesbiandar trope, it stuck in my mind. And it's hard to think of butch characters on screen, just generally. And certainly not actresses who present that way and get cast at all.

Dot-Marie Jones, who played Coach Bieste in Glee, is apparently (a) lesbian. She married her longtime girlfriend, actress Bridgett Casteen, in 2013. Dot-Marie's wife subsequently suffered a life-threatening stroke due to a hole in her heart, in July, 2017, which she will need (& presumably has already had) surgery to close.

[SmithW6079]

On 1/24/2018 at 10:08 PM, JustaPerson said:

I stumbled on a BBC crime drama called London Spy which aired in 2015 starring Ben Winshaw where he plays a club kid named Danny (who's like a human puppy) who falls for serious-minded banker Alex, only to have him disappear and revealed to be in MI6. Danny decides to investigate Alex's disappearance and engage in espionage himself. It's only 5 episodes and I haven't finished it, but I could have watched an entire series just on them falling in love and navigating a relationship without the spy stuff. 

 

I remember that show. I think I watched two episodes before I found it deadly dull. Not even the fact that it had two main characters who were gay could get me to watch. 

On NBC, there's a new "comedy" called "Champions." (I put comedy in quotes because it's a piece of crap.) 

One of the main characters is an out 15-year-old who's every stereotype of an effeminate drama queen, from singing showtunes to flamboyant gestures to overly tweezed, plucked, and waxed eyebrows to slavish devotion to gay icons to general spoiled rotten bitchiness. Ugh. When will creators figure out that a bitchy gay man is not funny just because he's a bitchy gay man?

[Rinaldo]

22 minutes ago, SmithW6079 said:

One of the main characters is an out 15-year-old who's every stereotype of an effeminate drama queen, from singing showtunes to flamboyant gestures to overly tweezed, plucked, and waxed eyebrows to slavish devotion to gay icons to general spoiled rotten bitchiness. Ugh. When will creators figure out that a bitchy gay man is not funny just because he's a bitchy gay man?

I've been watching Champions too (I would have stopped, but I'm rather puzzled what they think the long-term story or situation is going to be; never mind where the comedy is going to come from, as they're evidently not even trying for laughs). Anyway, the stereotypical kid is the least of their problems. I don't think this one will be around long.

[SmithW6079]

5 minutes ago, Rinaldo said:

I've been watching Champions too (I would have stopped, but I'm rather puzzled what they think the long-term story or situation is going to be; never mind where the comedy is going to come from, as they're evidently not even trying for laughs). Anyway, the stereotypical kid is the least of their problems. I don't think this one will be around long.

One can only hope.

[BW Manilowe]

12 minutes ago, Rinaldo said:

I've been watching Champions too (I would have stopped, but I'm rather puzzled what they think the long-term story or situation is going to be; never mind where the comedy is going to come from, as they're evidently not even trying for laughs). Anyway, the stereotypical kid is the least of their problems. I don't think this one will be around long.

Neither does "the Cancel Bear" show cancellation/renewal predictor at TV by the Numbers.

[HunterHunted]

Sufferer of a terminal case of thirst trap, Nico Tortorella got married to his long time lesbian partner. Mazel tov! What a happy momentous event to share with their family friends thousands of Instagram fans.

https://www.them.us/story/inside-nico-tortorella-and-bethany-meyers-private-epic-wedding

http://people.com/tv/nico-tortorella-married-bethany-meyers-genderblending-ensembles/