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24 Sep 2008

More gay, lesbian characters in 2008/9 US TV shows

With Ugly Betty's Marc St James and Brothers & Sisters' Kevin Walker, Scotty Wandell and Saul Holden, US broadcast television will have 16 regular LGBT characters in prime-time series this fall - the highest tally ever.

With Brothers & Sisters' Kevin Walker, Scotty Wandell and Saul Holden and Ugly Betty's Marc St. James, US broadcast television will have 16 regular LGBT characters in prime-time series this fall - the highest tally in 13 years of monitoring by a US gay media watchdog.

Top of page: Kevin (Matthew Rhys) and Scotty (Luke Macfarlane) make a commitment to be life partners in Brothers & Sisters in last season's finale. Above: Grey's Anatomy's Dr Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) and Dr Erica Hahn (Brooke Smith) became the only regular lesbian/bisexual female characters on network television, Michael Urie stars as Marc St James in Ugly Betty and gay couple Bob (Tuc Watkins) and Lee (Kevin Rahm) in Desperate Housewives.
TV viewers can expect more LGBT representation in the new seasons that will premiere in the US this month as the overall number of gay and bisexual regular characters will more than double this year after a three-year slump, according to a study by US-based Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).

GLAAD examined 88 scripted comedies and dramas announced to air this upcoming season, and counted a total of 616 lead and supporting characters, 16 of which are LGBT - more than twice the number of characters, seven, announced at the launch of the 2007-2008 season.

The 13th annual "Where We Are On TV" report shows that LGBT representations will account for 2.6% of all scripted series regular characters on the 2008-2009 broadcast television schedule, up from 1.4% in 2005, 1.3% in 2006, and 1.1% in 2007. In contrast, the number of LGBT series regular characters found on scripted programming on mainstream cable networks has decreased since last year's analysis, from 40 to 32.

The media watchdog said in a media statement that it is a positive sign of networks making their shows more representative, although more work needed to be done.

The report singled out Fox for having five LGBT characters out of 97 total series regular characters for 2008-2009 from having none last season. The character Thirteen on House is bisexual, while the new Do Not Disturb has a gay man.

"CBS has the most disappointing showing, with not a single LGBT series regular character out of 126, and only one recurring character in the entire series lineup [Brad on Rules of Engagement is gay]. Additionally, The CW's lack of scripted representation is now merely a close second to CBS, as the network has only one scripted series regular LGBT character [Marco Giordani on Privileged)." The statement read.

ABC will have seven characters that are either gay men or bisexual women this fall, NBC will have three and the CW will have one, according to GLAAD.

Nineteen recurring LGBT characters - those who appear in a few episodes - have been counted compared to 13 a year ago. The number is the highest GLAAD has counted during its 13 years of monitoring networks for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender representation.

There are no lesbians among the regular characters although GLAAD counted five bisexual women, including the characters of Callie Torres and Erica Hahn on ABC's Grey's Anatomy. There are also no bisexual male characters except Roger the Alien in Fox's satirical animated series American Dad! Fox had later confirmed that the character is in fact "omnisexual."

"As the networks gradually add characters from all backgrounds and all walks of life to prime-time programming, more and more Americans are seeing their LGBT friends and neighbours reflected on the small screen," Giuliano said.

Non-American viewers would benefit too if local censors are less snip-happy.

For a list of LGBT characters in the 2008/9 season, click on the Where We Are On TV: 2008-2009 Season report link below.

Reader's Comments

1. 2008-09-24 19:54  
how come NO armpit wrestling?????
2. 2008-09-25 08:57  
What is armpit wrestling?
3. 2008-09-25 10:54  
Considering that many of these programmes are shown in Singapore, Channel 5's Senior Censorship Manager David Christie can expect to work overtime!

================================

He said: "There are some shows like Brothers & Sisters where one of the main cast is gay, and The O.C. where two characters were lesbians in Season 2... How do you keep it running when there are strong gay issues?"

In the end, "we put such series on late nights and put up viewer advisories after making necessary edits."

"Even a cooking show can be dangerous," Christie said. "A guy could say something like, 'I'm cooking this for my boyfriend tonight.' We die, you know! What that one remark does is normalise gay lifestyle."

From: Switching channels as the world gets married
http://www.fridae.com/newsfeatures/article.php?articleid=2244&viewarticle=1
4. 2008-09-25 21:40  
Well, most of the gay characters are just token gays with no substantial parts and, most of the time, the characters are also pretty stereotypical. You would think that there would be more opportunity for substantial gay parts on Ugly Betty but there's only one. I think Brothers and Sisters is the only show on TV right now that sort of deal with any gay issues.
5. 2008-09-26 06:01  
I have seen Ugly Betty and Brothers and Sisters up to their current schedule and I really doubt in Singapore, Brothers and Sisters (Season 2) can be successfully shown with integrity intact since many episodes are very very heavily laced with gay segments. They allow Ugly Betty cos gays seems silly in it and anything that normalise gay lifestyle is banned.

I have never heard of anyone let alone a country that boasts of being a "1st" world, that can only feel justified and rest safely if it successfully forces a stereotype upon a group of decent people to become a punching bag of demons. Sad country.
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14. 2008-09-26 10:50  
And where are the Asians??
15. 2008-09-26 12:49  
VIVA LA GAY
16. 2008-09-26 19:52  
Re-editing the programmes by cutting out gay references and story lines would normally amount to serious breach of the makers' copyright.

I read in an earlier article that there is some deal so there can be some sort of editing for time or scheduling purposes. If this is the case then would it extend to taking out gay material to comply with an offensive tv "code", effectively re-writing a programme and interfering with its artisitic integrity? I suspect not.

Ultimately I suppose it is up to the sellers of the programmes to do something to defend the integrity of their work.

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