Have you heard the news: More gay characters are on television than ever! GLAAD’s 15th annual “Where We Are On TV” study (full report here), which looks at queers in the 2010-11 season, says the 23 LGBTs currently on the small screen represent 3.9% of series regulars, “up from 1.1% in 2007, 2.6% in 2008, and 3% in 2009.” Some qualifiers: The study focuses only what’s seen in primetime, and only scripted (read: non-reality) shows are in the tally. But that still means of 84 scripted shows, with a total of 587 regular characters, some 23 actors are representing, though there are only two lesbian characters (and three bi women). And while HBO’s True Blood, with six queers, gets the top nod, surely Monday’s episode of 90210 explains why The CW is getting bigger marks. (Spoilers ahead.)
Trevor Donovan’s Teddy, fresh from an injury that’s ended his tennis ambitions, wakes up hung over and in a daze. Did he sleep with his girlfriend Silver, who he’s been feuding with?
Nope!
It’s Kyle Riabko’s Ian, who is going to help Teddy come to terms with his dude-loving ways. Sexually!
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
EARLIER:
Trevor Donovan Thinks It’s ‘Cool’ His 90210 Character Is About to Administer BJs
Just How Far Will 90210 Take Trevor Donovan’s Sexual Conquests?
amber
happy there’s a gay storyline but I know they’re only doing it for ratings. i hate the CW
slobone
Great! Glad to hear so many gay actors are working…
UMB
wait… they’re supposed to be in high school? usually it’s a stretch to believe people in tv shows are actually under the age of 20, but they didn’t even TRY this time.
James
So from GLAAD’s website, out of 53 gay, bi, or lesbian characters on television for 2010-2011, here is the breakdown —
4 African Americans
4 Latinos
3 Asian Americans
1 “other”
1 “TBA”
40 White/Caucasian
Gotta love the ethnic diversity there. But I’m guessing that the ethnic breakdown of TV’s straight characters would also be similar.
I guess in Tinseltown, it’s still more “desirable” to be White, and have blonde hair, blue eyes, and a twink-ish body — regardless of whether you’re straight or gay.
CONVERSATION CHAMBER
What grade level are they supposed to be? That actor is older than me, and I graduated HS in 1997…
Mike
The clip was just plain bad. This is exactly why I stopped watching televison. They do not look like high school students AT ALL. There must be something in the water at that high school.
Aaron in Honolulu
Everyone on this show is clearly in their late 20’s with Teddy being in his early 30’s.
NateB79
90210 is now like Strangers With Candy except instead of everyone at school ignoring the fact that the main character is 43 and a freshman, the audience does the ignoring. Right…got it.
jason
I think it is less offensive when they show two men as compared to two women. Two women is almost ALWAYS shown as a male-pleasing paradigm. The women usually have long, flowing hair and make-up, sort of like wannabe Playboy models. Ewww, I can’t think of a more disrespectful depiction.
I’d like to see more two-men paradigms as well as diesel dyke ones. By diesel dyke, I mean tough, no nonsense women with crew cuts and mullets. Hollywood fears these women more than anything else.
There are basically two scenarios which Hollywood fears most of all: the sight of two men kissing and the sight of a diesel dyke.
scott ny'er
I had peeps in my HS who looked pretty old for their ages The problem I had with this clip was that it was BORING!!!
Unlike that other clip Queerty posted on another thread of a British kid who came out. Now that was interesting. Good drama, writing, acting.
Bryan Harris
@amber: Thank you. I had the same thought. They would do anything for ratings (i.e. add black and gay characters).
FYI
And the first thing that Teddy does when he wakes up and realizes that he had him some hot man-on-man action last night was to “upchuck”? …Really? What a nice message to send to straight kids to gay kids alike, that gay sex is sooooo physically repulsive that you have constantly repress the gag-reflex. Yeah, and I don’t buy the crap about…oh, he would have tossed his cookies anyway because he had a hangover. Bullshit, the message was very clear — being gay is a bizarre acquired taste — something akin to eating rats on Survivor.
This show sucks. Just like all of the other cliche’ garbage hetero-sexists and/or self-hating homo writers, trying to keep their jobs, dump on us by catering to gay-stereotypes and repulsive pseudo-“moral” conflicts over very natural same-sex attractions and innate same-sex intimacy exhibited by countless millions of decent human beings of both genders, all sexually mature ages, all ethnic groups, and from all walks of life in the USA and in the world at large.
What’s next, the hanging scene from the “Children’s Hour” revisited or an “original” updated version of being literally eaten alive by Greek street hustlers;like Sebastian Venerable, in “Suddenly Last Summer”, who used his cousin Elizabeth Taylor as “bait” while acting out on his “compulsions”. The mutated stories of our lives must conform to the genre of the “outsider”, the Frankenstein monster who just really never quite fits in.
So, what’s so wrong with someone waking up with a smile on their face and having an epiphany by suddenly realizing how liberated they are by finally being able to be themselves. But I guess in hetero Wally World that doesn’t fit the tiresome, false, hetero desexualized scenario of denial, anger, depression and then, reluctantly, acceptance of homosex (like a cancer patient reluctantly embracing their terminal disease).
I wish the breeder propagandists, as well as the boot-licking gay apologists, would stop perverting our world with their hackneyed and twisted interpretations of us. Not one gay kid, NOT ONE, would hate themselves unless they were told that they must do so. Would any straight kid hate themselves for being straight? And why not? Because they are never told to do so.
What makes this such a tragedy is that ugly message of societally mandated self-contempt is usually delivered by the ones in which Gay kids put their most precious trust, i.e., family, friends, clergy, the hetero-dominate community…and even stupid TV programs.
Rick Gold
That guy makes morning ugly look good.
DR
@FYI:
Maybe the upchucking is a bit over-the-top, but to suggest that LGBT characters on television be portrayed as “someone waking up with a smile on their face and having an epiphany by suddenly realizing how liberated they are by finally being able to be themselves.” is just as naive. This takes years to resolve. Not minutes, not seconds, years.
Maybe you think the vomiting was a bit much, but I think I speak for many people when I say that having your world turned upside down with the realization that you’re not just like everyone else ain’t easy and it takes a long time to get to the place where you realize you are just like everyone else.
DianeSaw-her
These guys look REALLY old to pretend to be in high school. PLUS, the acting is atrocious!
scott ny'er
@FYI: I thought he upchucked because he swallowed too much. Maybe say the trick’s load and his own.
What!?!?! It might be hard to digest if you’re not used to it!!!
Ian
When you watch Degrassi, with actors much closer to the actual ages of high schoolers vs shows like 90210 or Glee where the characters are hitting ages they could be doing Ph.D. level dissertations, it’s just embarrasing to the intellect.
Toby
@Ian:
Hollywood producers are loathed to work with actual aged actors…mostly because of stricter labor laws, stage parents and production costs.
Personally I can see both sides of the issue.
Soupy
I’ve worked with a lot of child actors and I have a degree of ambivalence about it. It can be a really twisted experience for kids. AKA Lohan.
sam
Wasn’t he drunk/hungover? Couldn’t that be why he puked?
FYI
@DR who wrote:
“…but I think I speak for many people when I say that having your world turned upside down with the realization that you’re not just like everyone else ain’t easy and it takes a long time to get to the place where you realize you are just like everyone else.”
==================
I hardly think that it is the case with most gay teens in our modern Internet age. Well, I suppose if you lived in the Victorian Era and up to Stonewall Rebellion, and/or separated by a century before the invention of the Internet, that might be explainable. But, I stand by what I said before.
BTW, you’re naive if you think that most gay teens out there are nauseated by their first same-sex sexual encounter. The few that are desperately need therapy, along with their families. I imagine it is just as awkwardly intense, initially frightening, but ultimately satisfying as heterosexual teen love.
Sure, there are young people who let others define them. And sure, they are the one’s most crippled by self-hate imposed upon them by family, so-called “friends”, peers, and religious fascists, et al…but, the transition from pre-adolescent same-sex purely emotional attraction to post-adolescent same-sex emotional and physical attraction has more of a supportive social matrix nowadays to aid in that transition (via the Internet, as well as contact with many other out peers and Gay/Straight Alliances and Social Clubs).
But where are these depicted on TV? The old dinosaur Television writers and the Gay Uncle Toms on the Entertainment Plantation incessantly serve us up the same old trite, rancid dish of self-loathing homo-teens with unbearable angst for wanting the same things that other horny and lonely teens want. Hey, what use is a journey of self-discovery for the neophyte gay without a guilt trip along the way too, right? That’s what they expect of us, and that is what some of us give the stupid, clueless bastards.
At least on cable series, The United States of Tara (excellent program by the way on Showtime, I believe), depicts a more modern and self-respecting version of a gay teen. The non-cable major networks are still stuck in the 50s with their marginalized, antiquated gay stereotypes and tepid (so as not to “normalize” The Gay) portrayals of homosexual teens (especially gay males). It is not just about the sex issues regarding gay males (they’re mostly neutered on TV after-all), it is also about how that all fits into so-called “gender norms” if gay men are really no different ostensibly than straight men.
And that brings up the painful reality (to many backwards thinking heterosexuals) that masculinity is not, and has never been, the exclusive domain of heterosexual men — so, there is sacrifice to male identity for indulging in gay male sex. I think that is the ultimate threatening message a hetero-dominate society fears the most.
FYI
Correction, second to last line in post above. Actually that should have read “– so, there is NO sacrifice to male identity for indulging in gay male sex.”
And I reiterate, I think that is the ultimate threatening message a hetero-dominate society fears the most.
DR
@FYI:
I didn’t say “most teens were nauseated by their first sexual encounter”. What I said was coming out isn’t all rainbows and unicorns. It’s hard. It takes guts. It takes time. That’s reality. THAT’s what I said many teens (and adults) go through. It’s unrealistic to assume that every kid will wake up, cheer “I’m gay!” and go form a GSA, march in a pride parade and get himself a boyfriend, it just doesn’t work that way, and it’s naive to assume it does.
I think what’s really bugging you about this is the way the show has elected to “out” this character. I’ll admit it isn’t the classiest way, but it’s 90210, and over-the-top drama comes with the turf. I remember the original, and it was the same thing. No one on that show was emotionally healthy and I suspect, from the above clip, that much hasn’t changed in the last twenty years.
ait10101
@James:
Sorry James, but related to actual numbers (especially recalling that any per cent x heritage makes you x heritage — which is lunacy) the numbers are not that far from census numbers — USA is mostly pseudowhite (not to mention pseudoheteosexul).
Philip
Save yourself 4.5 minutes of your life and FF to very near the end.
Apparently, CW stands for crappy writing.
alan brickman
Regardless of their ages… they all look better than you…..
FYI
@DR: It’s naive of you to assume that any one here said that “all” gay teens would (in your words) “…wake up, cheer “I’m gay!” and go form a GSA, march in a pride parade and get himself a boyfriend…”
That wasn’t even in dispute. What was the bone of contention here was how most TV writers/producers incessantly stereotype gay teens as perpetually filled with self-hate. That is both a negative and an unproductive cliché that has unfortunately lead to the premature deaths of so many gay teens — as witnessed in the last few weeks nation wide by so many gay teen suicides.
Furthermore, if all we had depicted on TV were negative story lines of Black kids or other minority kids hating themselves because they were not part of the majority community, you can be damn sure there would be a gigantic stink storm raised over it. Sure, you can counter by stating that there is already a supportive Black community, Hispanic community, (choose your ethnic/religious minority and fill in the blank)…et al. But with the advent of the Internet, there is also outreach into the gay community for teens as well. Dan Savage is a recent example of such.
Yes, we all need to do a better job of reaching out to gay teens who are still emerging into their own natural sexual orientation. But, my original point was regarding that great cultural wasteland called TV and how it has done little to depict self-accepting and out proud Gay teens. The ubiquitous gay teen on TV is nearly always depicted as dysfunctional which just lends itself to further stereotyping Gay as innately emotionally unstable, and never pointing the finger of blame at the true culprit — the dysfunctional society in which the gay teen is brought up and brainwashed from an early age to hate themselves.
All of modern media has worked hard to denounce racism (with the exception of FOX news probably), but a blind eye is still cast upon homophobia in the home, in the churches, schools, and in society in general. That is why it is important to show more examples of self-accepting teens on TV so that positive role models can help smooth that transition for the emerging gay teen in real life.
Every minority has their stories about overcoming adversity while under the thumb of a dominate culture, we have ours too. And they all don’t have to start with self-doubt and self-hate. I don’t know why you are so adamant “DR” that these stories not be told as well, and even be encouraged to become the new norm. I don’t know what negative experiences you had coming out “DR”, but not everyone hates themselves or will hate themselves when they, as teens, discover who they really are.
DR
You know what, maybe you ought to give the show more than one freaking episode to see how this plot develops. *sigh*
I am adamant because you have unrealistic expectations about tv and real life. You seem to be stuck on the “self-hate” thing, which means you completely miss my point. If honest struggles and questions = self hate in your mind, then so be it, I’m not going to do armchair psych with you.
Methinks you’re the one looking to be validated by the media. I say it is what it is, and not everyone has a happy story. Get over it and let’s see where the plot goes.
FYI
Obviously, “DR”, you are projecting your own neurosis onto others. You seem to be “…stuck on this self-hate thing”. Your own pathetic struggles with self-respect may have been an issue for you when you were coming out during the Jurassic Age, but not everybody has those same issues of self-contempt regarding their sexual orientation. Some of us actually are mature enough to see that there is nothing wrong with being who we are. A problem you seem to be stuck on.
Yes, all of this might appear to be just too simplistic for someone, like you, who may be still struggling with guilt and shame, but most GLBT people nowadays no longer let other people so easily define them — like you obviously do. I acknowledge, sure, there are still dysfunction people – like you, no doubt – who may have issues of self-destructiveness when they are in the process of coming out. But today there exist a more extended community to reach out to than there ever was before you became a Golden Girl. I’m sorry that it was so hard for you back then, but “that was then, this is now”.
Being Gay is not the same issue that it was when it was still a criminal offense in most American states (I’m sure you remember that), and when it was also defined as a “mental disorder” (you really don’t have to think of yourself, DR, that way anymore… maybe). Much has changed since then. So, get over it and stop being an enabler for self-contempt. Show some pride and some self-respect, or at least get out of the way so others (i.e. our most vulnerable GLBT children) may at least find a proper role model that is the antithesis of your self-loathing ilk.
“DR”, there is no need for you to be an armchair troll and flame on any further, you already made your asinine case for defending self-hating stereotypes being promoted on television as the perennial face of GLBT youth. Thank god your negative breed of gay is being slowly replaced by a more forward-thinking, self-reliant and a more self-respecting generation of Gay and Lesbian youth. Some of us actually care about ourselves and have more faith in our peers than you are capable of showing or even comprehending.
FYI
CORRECTION (should read): “…I acknowledge, sure, there are still dysfunctional people…”
The point is, that we should be demanding more positive role models on TV, while still recognizing that some people (especially “some” GLBT youth) may still have problems accepting themselves. But where are the self-accepting GLBT teens represented on television? There are way too few of them, and they are vastly outnumbered by the dysfunctional GLBT characters. …You know this true.
I have no doubt that more positive, uplifting, self-respecting role models could actually help dysfunctional and alienated GLBT youth find more self-respect and hope in their own lives regarding their sexual orientation and minority status. This is, and always has been, true for ALL minorities — including the GLBT community and its youth at risk.
DR
Ahh, yes, you bitch about a tv show and someone calls you on it so clearly something is wrong with them. Been out for twenty years and don’t need a tv show to validate my existence, something you could learn.
PS.. Kurt from Glee… Justin from Ugly Betty… Adam Torres (FtM tansgender) from DeGrassi:the Next Generation (Canadian, but shown in some places in the states)… Calvin Owens from Greek on ABC Family… Enrique Vaszuez from “My So-Called Life”…Willow and Tara from BtVS…
Shall I list more “positively” written teen and college age characters on TV for you, a list this character may join? Have a great day.
FYI
@DR:
Dear “DR” (Laura),
I never wrote that there weren’t “any” positive role models on TV. Perhaps a course in remedial reading just might help your comprehension skills a bit. I was simply stating the obvious fact (to all except for someone as clueless as you) that there are still too many stereotypical depictions of Gays — especially, the self-loathing type such as yourself — on television in dramatic roles.
It is a sad commentary on your character, Herr “DR”, that if you’ve been out for over two decades then you should have learned not to be so full of self-hate — not to mention, bullshit. But then, I’m sure you’re just being yourself.
And no, “DR” Frankenfurter, I don’t need TV to validate my life, but apparently you obviously do need your petty troll-flamer fits on Queerty to justify yours.
Let it go…and move on, loser. Just move on, and get a life.
Robert
You all are right…the character “Teddy” is played by actor Trevor Donovan, who is 31!
mike
Its not uncommon for tv shows depicting high school students to cast older actors. Its been noted that high school students and anyone on the lower end of the covented 18-34 tv demo sees themselves as older developmentally. Any actual teenager playing a teenager would deemed too young on television and not believable.
Joey75
It is a high school, they have to higher actors and actresses that are over 18 to play the part of high school students so it won’t cause issues with underage sex. All movies and TV shows hire those above 17 because of adult type situation. That’s the reality of Hollywood. Nobody wants to see a underage 14 to 17 year old engaging in adult relationships. It’s wrong and you will be dealing with issues on underage actors engaging in adult sex.
Hannah
@mike: Then why does Degrassi seem realistic? Most actors on that show seem just fine. I don’t think we need a 30 year old to play a 16 year old to prove they are in high school.
@Joe75- I agree. Hound Dog starring Dakota Fanning was a great movie, but the critics and parent groups tore it apart long before it would have even been in theaters. All they heard was Dakota Fanning (at age 12) was is a rape scene. They went crazy. The movie was never in theaters and never appreciated for what it was worth.
On the other end of the spectrum, Chris Mintz-Plasse (at age 17) did a sex scene in SuperBad with his movie watching a few feet away. That had to be uncomfortable for the actor, the actress, the parent, and maybe even the crew.
Getting an older actor makes sense – unless they look like they are a 30 year old playing a 16 year old.
so true says
that is for sure. these people today need professional help bad, because they are very sick people. the lesbians are the worst. as a straight man that is trying hard to meet a straight woman, it has become very difficult for me. there are just too many lesbians out there now than ever before which is causing the problem for us straight that are looking. i was married twice at one time, and was a very caring and loving husband at the time and both of the women cheated on me. they did cheat on me with other men, not with other women as far as i know. i never cheated on them because i loved them very much at the time and was very committed to them as well. now when i go out i seem to meet all the very nasty low life women, instead of the good ones. this explains it. where are the decent women today? i would like to hear from you.