Happy Pride Month! We wish every network, especially cable since they have no restraints, were going to highlight the month with LGBT programming, but we'll settle for what we can get, as always. We thought we might see something fabulous on the 45th anniversary of Stonewall on the History Channel, Discovery or PBS, but that's not happening. But we do have some choices. One interesting thing we saw: BET has a spot on their website of black celebrities who are pro-gay. It's kinda strange, but we'll take it.
ABC got us ready for Pride with the Modern Family wedding. We always cry at weddings, and are just engaged ourselves now that same-sex marriage is legal (we tie the knot in October!), this was poignant for us. It's been 18 years since the first same-sex wedding on Friends, with Newt Gingrich's lesbian sister Candace officiating Ross' ex-wife's wedding. It was a major TV event at the time. Of course our marriages weren't legal then, so there was really little straights could complain about, given the wedding was a commitment ceremony with no legal standing. Of course complain they did, and loudly.
The major drama in that sitcom event was the lesbian sister of the Speaker of the House seemed to be throwing down a gauntlet. Candace Gingrich was trending at that time, and Friends, with a gay showrunner, took full advantage. There have been other gay and lesbians weddings on TV since, although remarkably few, and even fewer that were legal. Bianca Montgomery's short-lived marriage to Reese on ABC's All My Children had the couple drive from Pennsylvania, where the show was set, to Connecticut, the closest state with marriage equality at the time.
But when Callie and Arizona married on Grey's Anatomy several seasons ago, it wasn't legal, since the show is set in Seattle, and Washington State didn't have marriage equality then. What that wedding did have was conflict, as Callie's Latino parents balked at their daughter marrying another woman. Her mother, outraged, refused to attend the wedding. Callie's father left with her mother, but came back in time to dance the father-daughter dance with Callie. Nevertheless, it was bittersweet. But GA is a drama, and Modern Family is a sitcom. Drama and conflict play differently in comedy.
Since MF debuted we've known that Jay (Ed O'Neill) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) have a complicated relationship. It's one of the show's realistic elements. But in the lead-in to the wedding, that complexity came to the fore in ways we didn't expect.
Mitchell and Cam's (Eric Stonestreet) relationship has always been a given on the show. They were both out, they adopted a child together, they were coupled as strongly as everyone else. But as we know, there's something about same-sex marriage that touches a nerve for straights. Mitchell and Cam getting married touched a nerve for Jay.
It has been a long engagement. The couple announced at the beginning of the season. There has been hilarity: Mitchell and Cam's good friend Pepper (played to queeny perfection by Nathan Lane) took on the role of wedding planner from hell, leading to some of the funniest moments on the show ever. But as the wedding got closer, emotions ran high. They ran highest between Mitchell and Cam, and Mitchell and Jay.
We're enjoying M & C's daughter Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons), who is turning into a deadpan genius with her arch tone. We know she's only going to get better. It seemed as if things might not resolve for Mitchell and Jay. And then they did. Was there a dry eye in the house when Jay walked Mitchell down the aisle? Certainly not from us. What a fabulous way to end the season.
A completely different kind of gay marriage happened on Fox's stellar new series Gang Related. After The Shield, we didn't think we could like another gang-focused police-procedural set in L.A. We were wrong. Gang Related borrows heavily from The Shield, but in all the best ways. Where it differs dramatically is nearly the entire cast and the characters they play are either black or Latino. There are only three main characters who are white. That factor alone makes this show worth a look.
We didn't expect to see gay characters in this show, let alone a gay wedding between a black gang-banger and his muscle-bound, be-tatted boyfriend. It was a stunning twist in the early plotting, and surprisingly moving. We also didn't expect an AIDS storyline. We also didn't expect RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan starring as a detective in the gang task force. The show's star Ramon Rodriguez will be familiar to those who watched The Wire, and he brings that show's grittiness to the role of Det. Ryan Lopez. Rodriguez is also fabulous eye-candy. It will be interesting to see how white audiences read this show, where the racism being addressed is black/Latino and black/Asian. We also found the discussion of what happens to gays in gang culture intriguing and heartbreaking.
That complexity of being gay also hit reality TV this week. ABC's What Would You Do? is one of those shows we say we won't watch and always seem to get sucked into for the full hour. It's a kind of social justice Candid Camera, with host John Quinones putting actors in situations involving racism, homophobia, sexism or some other moral dilemma to see how people will respond. Will their better natures come out, or will they be shown as bigots with no moral center?
Both the May 23 & 30 episodes dealt with homophobia. On May 23, three African-American teens were in an athletic store, and one came out to his friends. The friends didn't take it well, and were both bullying and homophobic. A black woman in the shop stepped in to tell the friends they were being bad friends. "That's your home boy. That was hard for him to share that. You need to treat him better." She told the teen who had come out that it was OK: he was brave, it would get better, his friends would understand or they weren't his friends to begin with. A coach comes in, and he's supportive and hugs the gay teen and tells him that he shouldn't worry, his friends will get it. It was deeply moving, because these people had no idea the three guys were actors. How important it was that these scenes were played out with African-Americans, particularly given the recent controversy over the Michael Sam televised kiss.
On the May 30 episode, things went far less smoothly for our actors posing as a gay male couple in a restaurant in quaint but bigoted Vicksburg, Mississippi. Our white gay male couple sits in a restaurant, arms around each other, occasionally kissing. The majority of the other patrons are women, including a table of teenagers and a table of young mothers with young children. Another ABC actress is the ringer who complains loudly about the disgusting gays. She is supported by all the other patrons until two young men, students at a local college, come in.
Offended by the blatant homophobia and visibly shaken, one of the guys complains to the manager (also an actor), who then asks the gay couple to leave, upsetting the guy who complained. When Quinones reveals himself, it doesn't fix anything. The women are perfectly comfortable in their anti-gay attitudes, some quoting (or misquoting) the Bible and Jesus (who never said anything about homosexuality) as their rationale, others pulling out the old Adam & Steve chestnut. One middle-aged woman says if her son told her he was gay she would ask him to move. Yikes. Given the two actors actually were gay, it was a bittersweet moment. The man who stood up for them was terrific, but the other people in the place? Bigotry is alive and well in Mississippi.
In better news, we're excited to see that Showtime, which is fond of LGBT viewers, will be reviving its two groundbreaking queer series Queer as Folk and The L Word for Pride Month. It's hard to believe QAF debuted back in 2000, or that it's been five years since TLW ended. But if you've always meant to binge-watch these series, June is the time. Showtime has committed to showing the entirety of both series. Much as we love Netflix, there's something about watching something in real time that feels good when it's LGBT programming.
Showtime started airing the two series June 2 on the Showtime Showcase channel and on demand. Back-to-back episodes of these two dramas (which won a gazillion awards from GLAAD, which isn't necessarily an imprimatur, but goes to their historical value) will air Mon.-Fri. until June 30 on Showtime Showcase, followed by another run on Thurs. from July 3 through Nov. 13.
Based on the British series, QAF ran for five seasons. It starred Gale Harold, Michelle Clunie, Robert Gant, Thea Gill, Randy Harrison, Scott Lowell, Peter Paige, Hal Sparks and Sharon Gless as gay men and some lesbians in Pittsburgh. The series was developed for American TV by Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman. It may or may not hold up, but there's been nothing comparable to take its place.
L Word ran for six seasons (one of those seasons was just terrible). It will be great to see "Les Girls," especially Shane and Papi, together again. The show, set in L.A. with familiar West Hollywood sites, starred Jennifer Beals, Laurel Holloman, Mia Kirshner, Katherine Moennig, Erin Daniels, Leisha Hailey, Sarah Shahi, Rachel Shelley and the inimitable Pam Grier.
Showtime will also be premiering a new lesbian film from TLW creator Ilene Chaiken, currently showrunner for ABC's stellar The Black Box. Showtime announced May 28 that L Word Mississippi: Hate the Sin will debut Aug. 8, a 90-minute documentary exploring the lives of Southern lesbians and their families.
On the actual anniversary of Stonewall, Logo will be airing a live event. Trailblazers will honor the work of LGBT civil rights pioneers. It will be held at the iconic Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan. Hosted by LGBT ally Daniel Radcliffe, it will air Thurs., June 26, at 9 p.m. EST. The show will honor Edie Windsor and her attorney, Roberta Kaplan. Windsor won the landmark 2013 U.S. Supreme Court case that overturned DOMA.
Also in the Pride TV line up is the return of HBO's True Blood for its seventh and final season. The flagrantly pansexual vampire series with longtime gay characters like Lafayette will be doing AIDS metaphor this season: a virus spreads through Bon Temps, putting everyone at risk. Expect to see a lot of Bill (Stephen Moyer) and Sookie (Anna Paquin) as the show returns to its bloody roots. The couple are featured on the cover of the current issue of TV Guide. Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) and Jason (Ryan Kwanten) will also be getting their blood up, which should be delectable. We should also expect Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) to discover anew that a good man is hard to find. Or something like that. True Blood returns June 22.
NBC's The Night Shift debuted last week to good reviews. The twist on this new medical drama is doctors who have just returned from war, including a trauma surgeon, T.C. Callahan (Eoin Macken), who may be suffering from PTSD. One of his friends and colleagues, Drew (Brendan Fehr, whom we've loved since Roswell ), is gay but deeply in the closet. In a scene between Drew and T.C., T.C. tells Drew, "Maybe you should think about coming out." Drew replies, "The second I come out, I'm the gay guy. Coming out is not an option." So many closets, even in 2014.
Not surprisingly, Oprah is keeping gay in play on OWN. Lisa Ling, whom we have loved since we first saw her on The View, has done some terrific journalism over the years. This month she returns with her series Our America with Lisa Ling on OWN. On June 5, Ling will be re-interviewing three trans persons she first interviewed back when the show debuted.
Speaking of trans persons, Laverne Cox is on the cover of Time this week looking stylin' in a form-fitting teal dress and very strappy little heels. The Orange Is the New Black star breaks some ground there, as she discusses what it is to be trans in America. The cover is perfectly timed: the second season of OITNB premieres June 6, and omg are we ready to see Piper and the gang come back. It's hard to imagine more buzz surrounding a returning series, especially this original Netflix series. One new addition we can't wait to see this season is Lorraine Toussaint. She'll be playing Vee, and has a history with Red (Kate Mulgrew).
Meanwhile, NBC's new sitcom Undateable has a newly out gay guy. Hilarity ensues.
If you didn't get enough of Matt Bomer in The Normal Heart, he was on Ellen last week, and he was delightful. He was also on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
And that's the LGBT round-up for Pride. So for these queer sightings and more to come (don't forget RuPaul!), for the lesbianing and the gaying, you know you really must, you must darlings, stay tuned.