Queereaders discussion

I think , that in some ways it helps that alot of gay stars do not explode out of the closet and on to the screen. That way people get to know them as peopple or somewhat anyway like Greg Luganis, Lance Bass, Neil Patrick Harris. I am in NO WAY SAYING they should have to hide. I hope you guys can understand what I am tryuing to say here , it's easier in my brain the to type it.

I didn't really watch Will & Grace, but I thought Jack was way more interesting than Will, who was kind of sexless.

I loved Willow on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I thought that was a great example of someone who was a character first -- we knew her for years before she came out -- and not a stereotype.

Karen was the best drag queen ever!

And what was Will's boyfriend's name? Bobby Cannavale was the actor's name, he can frisk me anytime. He was so funny as the inept, gun-happy cop!

are you talking about grace? the one with red hair? the wacky lucille ballesque neurotic sidekick?

karen is the rich socialite who's always drunk, affectionately referring to her boys, the two glens, as in glenfiddich and glenlevit LOL (she's played by real-life megan mulally who's out bisexual).

are you talking about grace? the one with red hair? the wacky lucille ballesque neurotic sidekick?

karen is the rich socialite who's always drunk, affectionately referring to her boys, the two glens, as in glenfiddich and glenlevit LOL (she's played by real-life megan mulally who's out bisexual).

Yeah, I met Debra Messing (Grace) at the Clothespin the day before Election Day. She's better looking in person and she had such luscious hair. She even spelled H I to me. Nice gal, she was with Mayor Nutter and Gov. Rendell.

Yeah, it was an exciting day as we knew the Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue was soon over.

The UK version of "Queer As Folk" was landmark television and SO much better than the US version, which I just stopped watching after the third season.

oh no it's NOT.... UK version was awful, bad acting (okay... worse acting) and the characters were just without, well, character... US QAF was oh so much better.

ScottK wrote: "I think , that in some ways it helps that alot of gay stars do not explode out of the closet and on to the screen. That way people get to know them as peopple or somewhat anyway like Greg Luganis, ..."

I think I understand what you're saying, Scott. As someone who is not overly fascinated by the personal lives of celebrities, I don't care whether actors "come out" or not. The only thing that interests me is the quality of the movie/show and the actor's performance.

I'm not a big TV watcher and haven't seen any of the shows you guys are talking about here, but I am a huge fan of Torchwood. The relationship between Jack and Ianto is so natural that it's sometimes hard to believe that Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto) is straight.

Here's one of my favorite scenes with Captain Jack dancing. It's so sweet and romantic and makes me misty-eyed every time I watch it.

I haven't watched anything other than Ellen De Generes. I don't have Cable or Dish, just what is shown in our Mobile Home park.
I have been watching One of the Stories on CBS that has a Gay Couple. They have "kissed" several times and they are still on TV, so I don't think anyone is fainting over it. I haven't heard any talk, either.

I jst found out recently that Time Warner cable Has the LOGO channel !!! I am soo stoked and they are playing Latter Days tonight! I have it on my DVR !!!

I love Latter Days. Very sweet, honest movie - I think it transcends the crap that is typical of "gay cinema".

Buffy the Vampire Slayer had my favorite Gay TV relationship ever.

Willow & Tara were the cutest couple ever, not to mention the fact that I had a huge crush on Alyson Hannigan growing up.

Has anyone watched Rupaul's Drag Race? It was a hoot!

Hey

I loved Willow & Tara. The whole Buffyverse, in fact...

But Thursday I watched that new Southland show that John Wells has made to replace E.R., and it was pretty good...and at the end we learned that one of the main characters is a gay cop. Which was kindof amazing, and I'm surprised I haven't seen anything in the queer press about it.

Love Torchwood also...

Kate wrote: "Anyone watch House? The character Thirteen is bi; she's dating the Omar Epps character now..."

I caught a few episodes of "House" and I'm hooked! Season 1 is now in my Netflix queue.

Kate wrote: "Torchwood is good ...I've seen a few episodes.

I love Torchwood. I just cannot get enough of those British guys. :)

Also, Kima Jones on The Wire...She was a really strong character, very realistically portrayed, neither sensationalized to the point of parody nor too P.C. nor made nice and easy for "regular" viewers. Definitely one of my favorite TV lesbians.

Also, on Bones, Angie's character is out and bi, which is VERY rare on TV. She is equally drawn to men and women, has had serious relationships with both over the life of the series so far... In my opinion a more evenhanded approach than either of the bi girls on House or Grey's.

Rafael wrote: "Also, on Bones, Angie's character is out and bi, which is VERY rare on TV. She is equally drawn to men and women, has had serious relationships with both over the life of the series so far... In my opinion a more evenhanded approach than either of the bi girls on House or Grey's...."

Refreshing to see a balanced portrayal of bisexual women on TV. So many see us as promiscuous, indecisive fence-sitters, or even worse, sex toys for straight men who want to have threesomes.

Oh, that's exactly what i want to be: a promiscuous, indecisive fence-sitter sex toy for straight men who want to have threesomes! LOL ;)

ME too as long as the wife/girlfriend is away and I can bring a friend.:)

LOLOLOL

There's absolutely NOTHING wrong with being promiscuous or being an indecisive fence-sitter. Nor is it wrong to have threesomes.

The Ethical Slut A Guide to Infinite Sexual Possibilities
This is a book that explains the slutty philosophy. Fun! Cannot wait to read this!

Rambling Reader wrote: "[b:The Ethical Slut A Guide to Infinite Sexual Possibilities..."

But it doesn't bend that way!

What doesn't bend that way? :)

I was thinking of Twister.

Speaking of Twister, I saw a couple of college students doing the Twister at 30th Street Station last night. 30th Street Station is the same thing as Union Station in other cities or even Penn Station in NYC, where all Amtrak trains, SEPTA regional trains and the subway converge. A strange sight.... those damn college kids! LOL

Anyway, don't discredit Twister until you've tried it! LOL

I would not recomend the Ethical Slut, very straight and kind of has a creepy hippy vibe to it.

That's the impression I got from reading all the reviews about that particular book. Reminds me of those droopy straight hippies you see on late-night sex documentaries on HBO.

Hello everyone...sorta popping my head out for an hour or so today. Sorry I haven't been participating as much as I'd like, but I've been trying to finish up a couple of books.

I loved Buffy...Willow & Tara Rule!! :)

I think the best gay character on TV at the moment is Kevin Walker on Brothers & Sisters. No one ever seems to be talking about this show and I think both the writers and the actors have done an excellent job representing the GLBT community.

I'm on the sofa every Sunday night to watch.

I was watching old episodes of "Fringe" the other day... Okay, by old I mean from March or early April. But there was one in which Olivia, the main FBI woman, was mentally linked with a guy. This was only marginally interesting except that when he went to flirt with and sleep with a stripper, it was Olivia who we saw doing the flirting and kissing with this other woman. It was very genderqueer and presented without any girl-on-girl titillation at all. Even the male characters, who frequently say dumb or offensive things, were quiet about it. I was impressed.

I really like Fringe. I need to get caught up on it, though.

Ethan wrote: "Hello everyone...sorta popping my head out for an hour or so today. Sorry I haven't been participating as much as I'd like, but I've been trying to finish up a couple of books.

I loved Buffy......"

I totally agree about Kevin Walker, although I didn't really think of him right away. I also love Brothers & Sisters, I think it's a great show.

I just watched the first series of the BBC show "Skins". One of the most interesting story lines on the show is when one of the characters crosses the sexual orientation line. Tony is a straight boy who is the most handsome and popular boy in school but when his gay friend is feeling low Tony offers to give the other boy oral sex to make him feel better. He does and eventually the story comes out in the middle of class.
What I find interesting about this is it explores the thought that sexuality is fluid, that a straight person can have gay sex and still be straight, just like all the married gays that are still gay but have sex with their opposite sex husband/wife.
This is a subject matter that would never come to light on an American t.v. show, especially not one about teens.

It's nice to see TV series exploring bisexuality. Torchwood (also on BBC) has two bisexual characters (Jack & Toshiko) though I was very disappointed that Toshiko's sexuality was not mentioned beyond one episode.

I'm curious if sexual fluidity is more common in women than men, simply because women seem to acknowledge bisexuality more than men do. I've known many gay-identified men who have had sex with women, yet they won't identify as bisexual.

That sounds like a good show, Phil. Is it new?

Doesn't Skins have that great kid from About a Boy? I have heard a lot of good things about it.

Meanwhile, I wanted to mention Animal Planet's series Groomer Has It. It tends to be very gay without making a point of it. For example, it's hosted by Jai Rodriguez of Queer Eye (who actually identifies as bi, now that I think of it), and this season there is at least one out gay man competing. Also, when they have gay dog owners, they aren't like LOOK AT THE BIG GAY DOG OWNER, they're more, And this is Wayne, whose partner of 20 years died, and this is his new dog. It's not all sensationalized.

Plus, Margaret Cho was on last week's episode!!

Separately, the gay cop on Southland has gay friends! They build retaining walls together and drink beer. Very nice.

I watched last years Groomer has it , there were at LEAST 2 of our Ilk there.

Phil -- I thought Skins was fabulous. It's very over the top, but I think on an emotional level it gets teens better than most shows I've seen, including the fluid sexuality.

Maha wrote: "oh no it's NOT.... UK version was awful, bad acting (okay... worse acting) and the characters were just without, well, character... US QAF was oh so much better. "

boo.. UK one gets my vote, was so annoyed it got stolen and copied , but i guess that version appeals more to Americans, the UK one was v quintessentially English

I did like the American Queer as Folk better than the UK only because the American version ran for five years and the producers were allowed to explore more issues than the UK could, like barebacking, politics and AIDS.

I think I've been spacing whole comments because people will quote someone's comment and I don't remember it....I dunno maybe they were also deleted.
I liked Will and Grace when it was on, even though it could be very stereotypical at times. I liked the show Bones even before I knew that Angela was Bi. Why has no one mentioned Xena! I loved that show in high school and even if they weren't lesbians, which I still swear they were, it was still a great tv show. I used to watch Degrassi too, it had some gay characters in it, I believe a male couple and a female couple, at different times in the show. I don't know if the current show has any gay characters though, I'm pretty sure that all the original characters aren't on the show. There was another show on the N that I can't remember the name of but it was about this girl who had two brothers, one was adopted... I think the girl's name was Spencer and she fell in love with her new best friend...there was at least three seasons of the show, I don't know why I can't remember the name of the show.

Dylan, I love that you brought up Xena. I was such a fan, even before they took a lesbian turn (although at the time I didn't realize why I was rooting for them to be into each other -now that I'm out it ALLLLL makes sense lol). However, I don't really think they were the best lesbian couple on television because the producers were so hush-hush about it until the last few seasons ... I felt like they wanted to keep viewers guessing for the pure sensationalism aspect of it. Don't get me wrong, when they did flirt and hint at it, it was incredibly sexy (they are both attractive women!).

I have to admit I love the way they have handled the lesbian/bisexual relationships on Grey's Anatomy. Although it's a shame Erica Hahn's character had to leave (the chemsitry wasn't even there anyway), her coming out moment and her realization that she was a lesbian was amazing to see on prime-time television. She made the analogy to seeing without glasses and not realizing things are blurry until you put on the glasses, and it was so spot on I had to wonder if it was written by a gay writer!

Also, a shout out to Oscar on The Office, even if he is a minor character. I think they treat the subject very well.

I loved the first 3 seasons of Xena, but mostly because I love Wuxia, and Sam Raimi said he based her character on "The Bride With White Hair". I was also really really really into DC comic book superheroes when I was 9 y.o.; Wonder Woman was my favorite character right after Batman, and Xena had so many elements in common. Wonder Woman also got me interested in Greek mythology, so Xena offered three of my favorite things.

I'm really disappointed with most shows as far as queer representation goes. The outright queer shows are okay in a camp/soap opera/pulp romance sort of way, but the shows I like the most have next to no queer characters. Such as Battlestar Galactica. As far as I can recall, only one character was in a same sex relationship, and she was not a sympathetic person, AND her girlfriend turned out to be a cylon. And to top that off, they almost refused to air that episode.

In Smallville, up to season 7, there were only 2 queer references, and the second one I might have even imagined. The first one was where Chloe had the power to make people tell the truth, and a varsity football player said he wanted to take the quarterback to prom (or homecoming?). Second was where a male co-worker tells Jimmy Olson that some tickets were going to score big points with his boyfriend. I think I might have even imagined that one, it went by so quick. (Jimmy is played by the same guy who played the gay teenager in "Prom Queen").
I really like the characters in "Torchwood" a lot, but the writing is second rate, even to the new "Doctor Who"of which it is a spin off.

The point of all this is: how do we get any wide scale acceptance (whether we are "just like 'normal' people" or even freaks in our own right) from people, if some of the most popular shows refuse to acknowledge us except in the most minimal of passing gestures? There is very little show of equality, even 10% worth over all in mass media.

I'm going to add that I really enjoyed "Rick and Steve", which I find hilarious.
I just finished season 4 of Bones. While it's great that they added one more point to their diversity quota, it still seems a little.... uh little. What, was that like a whole month in the life of Angela to rehash a teenage fling? I also thought it was cute that Claire from "Heroes" got to have a kind of maybe but not really girlfriend for a few episodes.
Like with Xena in the 90s, "lesbian lite" scenarios are popular in the media. For queer women I think that is great, but we all know that it is very unlikely for, say, Peter Petrelli to suddenly fall in love with another man or for any of the male squints to be openly gay. On "Bones", Sam Jones III played a guest star who was out, but his whole time on the show was about five minutes.
At least there is Lafayette on "True Blood", although he really is a total stereotype. Still, I like that show for using all the metaphors for queer rights. God Hates Fangs!

(okay- just one more thing- sorry)
As I was about to sign out I caught the bit about "Queer As Folk"-
I almost want to agree with Collin. I liked Charlie Hunnam, Aidan Gillen and Craig Kelly much more than their US counterparts. I could never figure out what was suppose to be so "hot" about Brian Kinney; but Stuart was very charming. Speaking of Charlie Hunnam, he is NOW the sexiest thing I've seen on screen, next to Takeshi Kaneshiro in "Fallen Angels". I saw an interview with Hunnam, and he stated that his current role in "Sons of Anarchy" was not much different than his role in "Queer As Folk". And I really admired that. I haven't seen "Sons of Anarchy" yet, but hey, Peg Bundy plays his mom! So back to QAF- I always liked Sharon Gless so I think the US version is only slightly better because of her, but I didn't like much about the show until they had Ethan and Cody on there, as well as a few issues to show that it wasn't one long Castro Street version of "Leave It To Beaver".

I finally started watching Modern Family - the gay couple is ridiculously adorable and hilarious.

Christina wrote: "Also, a shout out to Oscar on The Office, even if he is a minor character. I think they treat the subject very well. "

And he's about to get a boyfriend on the show. Tim Daly's son is joined the cast to play him.

Christina wrote: "Dylan, I love that you brought up Xena. I was such a fan, even before they took a lesbian turn (although at the time I didn't realize why I was rooting for them to be into each other -now that I'm..."

I LOVE Cameron and Mitchell on Modern Family. That is a great show.

Watch for "Being Human" on BBC. It'll probably come out again after we get a new Dr. Who. Anyway, in "Being Human" it's three very working-class British housemates sharing an apartment and it's serious and funny. And one's a vampire, one's a ghost and one's a werewolf. The werewolf is straight, but the actor's gay.
Crap!
(Still a good show.)
Well, there's always Captain Jack!!!
As for Battlestar Galactica, what about Gaeda? Apparently they filmed a lot with his partner, but it's on the dvds...
As for Lafayette, on "True Blood," he's about the strongest, smartest character in that show. I think the stereotype is a mask so people in Bon Temps won't notice that he's the one pulling the strings!