TV cools on gay characters (13743)

According to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, times are hard for gay and lesbian characters on TV. Despite a positive outlook on cable dramas and reality series, the media watchdog organization found fewer LGBT characters on network TV than at any point since GLAAD began tracking the numbers in 1996.

In a statement issued Thursday, GLAAD executive director Joan M. Garry said, "When you turn to cable and reality TV, you see us--our lives, our relationships, our diversity. But when you turn to network comedies and dramas, you're seeing portraits of an America where gay people and families are nearly invisible. That's not the America we live in."

Lots of GLBT faces turn up on this fall's reality shows. There's the return of Bravo's Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and a new edition of CBS's Survivor (Survivor: Vanuatu), which features two lesbian contestants. Then there's the gay couple included in Fox's home renovation competition, The Complex: Malibu, and MTV's The Real World: Philadelphia, which boasts two gay housemates. Other reality shows with gay participants include ABC's The Benefactor, UPN's Amish in the City, and Showtime's American Candidate. 

Cable dramas are also doing well. Series like HBO's The Wire, FX's Nip/Tuck, and the N's Degrassi: The Next Generation--with a total of 15 gay male, nine lesbian, and two bisexual female characters--have come to represent the best mirror of GLBT culture available to many mainstream American TV audiences.

But gays and lesbians are all but invisible when it comes to scripted series on broadcast networks. GLAAD counts only five gay male characters and one lesbian character in 2004. There's only one new gay character in prime time: George (played by Patrick Breen in a supporting role), a nanny who works for the title character of UPN's Kevin Hill starring Taye Diggs.

Scripted network TV falls way down in including gay people of color; only the character of Adam, an Asian Pacific Islander on UPN's Half & Half, represents this segment of our population in 2004. Again, cable outperforms the networks. Between scripted dramas and reality shows, cable offers 11 gays and lesbians of color.

Perhaps most troubling among GLAAD's findings is the fact that, since the cancellation of ABC's It's All Relative, there's not one gay or lesbian family--or even one gay or lesbian couple--appearing on scripted broadcast network TV.