Quality, meet quantity
TV’s queers are better than ever—now it’s time for the numbers to catch up
BY Lisa Whittington-Hill
Suburbia went same-sex on the popular ABC series Desperate Housewives this season with the much-hyped move of a gay couple to Wisteria Lane. Teri Hatcher’s character, Susan, welcomes the couple and immediately gets off on the wrong foot with Bob and Lee, her new gay neighbours. “I’ve seen a lot of cable, so I get it. You’re just great,” she says—to which Lee self-referentially replies, “I hope we can live up to your stereotypes.”
Susan obviously hasn’t been watching much network television since, desperate housegays aside, it seems most of television’s homosexuals are still in the closet.
According to a recent study by the U.S.-based Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender characters on U.S. network television is declining. The 2007-08 television season has only seven regular LGBT characters on network TV (that’s NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox and the CW), down from nine last year and 10 the year before. And Canada doesn’t score much better. Outside of OUTtv, it’s uncommon to tune in and find a queer character on a Canadian network.
The math is discouraging, it’s true—but it’s not the whole story. While there are fewer gay characters on TV today, the characters we do have are more interesting and better written, more complex and with more prominent roles. Quantity isn’t the issue. Quality is, and it’s a much brighter picture.
Today’s viewers aren’t stuck with the stereotypical representations found on shows such as Will & Grace. While that show featured two gay men, the writers played it safe, kept it apolitical and made it gay-friendly for mainstream audiences. It’s nice to see gay characters on screen today who aren’t flamboyant queens or just there for laughs. Shows such as family drama Brothers & Sisters, which feature complex LGBT characters with complicated storylines and relationships, are a welcome change from the single dimensions of many queer television pioneers.
According to the GLAAD study, ABC is the most representative network, with shows like Brothers & Sisters, which has been praised for its three queer characters’ realistic and relatable portrayals, and Ugly Betty, which introduced prime time’s first transgendered character. NBC’s The Office earns bonus points for minority representation with accountant Oscar Martinez, who is not only gay, but also Hispanic.
Mainstream audiences are more progressive than ever, so it’s surprising that the figures are declining. Viewers aren’t shocked to find an LGBT character on screen, as many were in 1988 when the first gay character premiered on daytime network television on CBS’s As the World Turns. Christian rights groups are no longer lobbying for an “HC” label on shows with “homosexual content” as they were in the late 1990s, and advertiser backlash isn’t as common as it was in the late ’80s, when the ABC series thirtysomething lost more than $1 million in advertising for showing two men in bed together. Instead, it’s just the opposite.
Early in this decade, advertisers became anxious to court the hip, young demographic that shows like Queer as Folk attract. That show ran for five seasons on the Canadian cable network Showcase and broke records when it came to viewer numbers. Considering that the buying power of Canada’s gay community is estimated at $75 billion, it makes sense that advertisers want to cash in. There’s both an audience for queer-friendly programming and money to be made.
While networks continue to rain on the pride parade, cable stations have recognized that increased representation means more viewers and ad revenue. Unfortunately, viewers have to shell out for an expensive cable package to access stations like the Showcase network, which is home to groundbreaking shows such as The L word and Exes & Ohs, which chronicle the lives and relationships of lesbian and bisexual women—and remind viewers that being gay isn’t just for boys.
So while we may not have that many gay characters on television, at least the ones we do have are getting more realistic. But surely we can have both. Television writers and producers, not to mention their network bosses, need to give their audience some credit and realize that a little queer eye for the straight network is good for ratings—and not just GLAAD’s annual ranking. Television that reflects the diversity of the audience watching it—now that might actually be “must-see TV.”
