We like those weeks when we see a lot of queers on TV. This was one of those weeks. Back when we watched Heroes religiously, we loved Zachary Quinto as the Epitome of Evil. When his character Sylar traced his finger over the skulls of his victims and stole their brains, it was awesomely horrifying. He was so good in Heroes that it was difficult to imagine him as anything but evil. Especially since his Heroes role followed one in 24, the show which became zeitgeist support of American torture during the Bush years.
Turns out Quinto is not evil in real life. He's really pretty fabulous. Last week, Quinto came out for Spirit Day. He said that after the suicide of gay teenager Jamey Rodemeyer, he realized that "living a gay life without publicly acknowledging it is simply not enough to make any significant contribution to the immense work that lies ahead on the road to complete equality." Awesome. In other words, say it loud.
Quinto has long been a supporter of queer causes like the Trevor Project. He played a queer character on Tori Spelling's VH1 series So NoTorious, and appeared in the play about Matthew Shepard, The Laramie Project. Last year Quinto did a video for Dan Savage's It Gets Better project. He's currently playing the role of Chad in the creepy new series American Horror Story, bound to be an Emmy winner this year (if not for Quinto, then for Jessica Lange, who is totally amazing). Did we mention that we love him? We love him.
We also love Carson Kressley, who has been out since before they called it being out. Kressley is currently flaming it over on the Oprah network and flouncing it up on Dancing with the Stars �" until he was voted off the parquet last week. We feel the LGBT viewing audience really failed Kressley. Remember, this isn't a show that is just about who is the best dancer. The judges are only part of the story. The rest is about audience support. We get that Kressley isn't the son of Cher. We also get that he's actually worked for a living his entire adult life, after having graduated magna cum laude with a degree in fine art and working his way up through the ranks at Ralph Lauren. He's been an out queer since he figured it out at six. He grew up a flaming queen in the Lehigh Valley in small-town PA, never able to pass for anything but screaming queen. So why the lack of support for the gayest man on TV, who makes even Chris Colfer look butch?
How many words have been given over to Chaz Bono's appearance on DWTS this season? We've written a gazillion ourselves. But Kressley, who has won an Emmy, had hit TV shows and is an actual star (as opposed to child of a star) has gotten zero press. This isn't about slamming Chaz. One makes a living as one can in this crap economy, and Chaz makes his being Chaz Bono. Carson makes his living in the fields he trained for, interior design and fashion. Neither can dance their way out of a dark disco, so it's not like Chaz has dancing feet and Kressley does not. Plus Chaz has a good 75 lbs. on Kressley; the fact that he's been able to get sevens from the judges has been miraculous.
But Chaz has had endless press. Kressley was only the second out gay man (Lance Bass, the first) to appear on the show in its 13 seasons. Didn't that deserve some attention? Seriously, if the issue is personality, not dancing talent, doesn't Kressley beat out Chaz, Nancy Grace, and the endlessly sour David Arquette?
If we're actually going to bet on who should win the mirror ball this season, the winner should be J.R. Martinez, late of All My Children, a spectacular dancer. His only competition is Ricki Lake, who has trimmed down and gotten better each week. Martinez isn't just a stunner on the dance floor, he exudes passion. Plus his personal story is amazing. He survived a Humvee explosion in Iraq in 2003. He had third and fourth degree burns over 40% of his body, spent 34 months in the hospital and had 33 surgeries. His agility (despite his permanent injuries) is amazing. We hope he wins.
This is actually one of the most compelling seasons of DWTS. While we appreciate Chaz speaking out for the trans community, we think the LGBT community could easily have split their votes to keep Kressley in the running. Queer visibility on the tube is at an all-time low. Every time we lose a queer presence, it's bad for all of us.
Rosie window
Speaking of queer presence on the tube, Rosie O'Donnell is back. The Rosie Show debuted Oct. 10. The good news is that the show has gotten uniformly good reviews, unlike a lot of the programming on Oprah's network, which has been deemed too serious yet not Oprah-y enough. Rosie has toned down the free-floating anger she exhibited on The View, gone back to her stand-up roots and embraced the talk-show host role that has won her Emmys.
One of her first guests was lesbian comedian Wanda Sykes, with whom she discussed breast cancer. Sykes caught her own disease early; Rosie's mother died of the disease when the comedian was 10. This is what Rosie does best, talking in an earnest way with her guests, eliciting revelations. She has added some bits she used to do on her old show, like song-and-dance routines and a game-show segment. It's reminiscent of shows like The Carol Burnett Show or the underrated Jimmy Fallon Show.
One of Rosie's longtime idols is Susan Lucci, late of All My Children. La Lucci has been rumored to be going here, there and everywhere since AMC closed up shop in Sept. (replaced by the god-awful The Chew, the most annoying foodie show ever. We wonder what ABC was thinking trashing a 41-year iconic soap opera for a can of chickpeas, some fennel and a new brunch drink, a Bloody Mary made with beer. Ew.)
La Lucci has landed: it's Army Wives for her. She's been signed to an extended run as the wife of a general, giving advice to Kim Delaney's character. Rumors persist that she will eventually make her way to Wisteria Lane, but Marc Cherry has been mum on what surprises he has in store for Desperate Housewives' final season.
Sara Ramirez kissed Jessica Capshaw so passionately this week on Grey's Anatomy that every budding lesbian in America who was watching knew exactly how kissing a girl is supposed to be done. Move over Papi, La Ramirez has finally knocked you off your pedestal as hottest lesbian character ever on the tube. Now if only we could get Ramirez to take a page from Zach Quinto's book.
Last week we watched a mesmerizing hour of Anderson Cooper and his mother Gloria Vanderbilt engaging with John Edwards, the psychic who sees dead people. We don't know what happened between 360 and Anderson, perhaps it's the difference between cable and network, but good golly Anderson, you are the journalist who got the crap beaten out of him by an Egyptian mob in Tahrir Square, who called out then-FEMA director Michael Brown during Katrina, who screamed in the face of lying politicians. What are you doing interviewing your own mother about the suicide of your brother 23 years ago with a psychic, and not coming out?
Someone should print out Quinto's quote and send it viral. Each week as we watch actors we know are queer continue to hide, as we wait for a glimpse of a queer character on the tube, we are reminded just how marginalized we still are. We can't even keep two of our own people on a talent show for more than five weeks. We get that some people want privacy. That's what Anderson Cooper and Sara Ramirez say when asked about their personal lives. But straight people never have to be that private.
Over on The X Factor there's still blatant homophobia, as there always has been on American Idol. If it really did get better, all these grown-ups wouldn't still be in the closet, would they? For now, the only way to catch glimpses of people like us that mean so much to our identity as queers is to stay tuned.