Written By Alan Sarapa
As Pride month comes to a close, let’s reflect on the current state of LGBTQ representation in daytime. It has always been a fight to have LGBTQ characters on soaps. Bill Bell was going to tell a lesbian love story on The Young and the Restless with Katherine Chancellor and her friend Joann in the 70’s until CBS pulled the plug.
Though for every disappointment, you have a triumph like Bianca’s coming out to her iconic mother Erica Kane (played by soap legend Susan Lucci) on All My Children or Maya on The Bold and Beautiful being revealed to be trans. The latter example happened to be the best story that show has told in years. Speaking of Maya…
The Bold and The Beautiful
LGBTQ representation is inexplicably nonexistent. Maya (played by Karla Mosley who Brad Bell called his leading lady in 2015) is now a dayplayer who occasionally shows up to comment on the lives of the straight white people, while her great love story with her and Rick ended off-screen. It is incredibly disappointing to go from the best trans story to ever be on soaps (which I know isn’t a high bar when the other one is Zoe/Zarf on All My Children) to nothing. The story was popular too, so it wasn’t fan reaction that killed it. I don’t know if Brad’s infamous short attention span kicked in or if he was just worried about fans from outside the US hating it, as B&B is a globally syndicated soap.
Maya remains the only time they’ve ever tried for LGBTQ inclusion in an actual big story. When you consider the fact that B&B takes place in LA and is about the fashion industry, having zero gay characters is crazy. It would be like making a series about the NBA and casting only white people. B&B is a fantasy world where the majority of fashion designers are straight white guys and twenty-somethings have multiple weddings with the same people.
Days of Our Lives
September will mark the exit of Chandler Massey and Freddie Smith as Will and Sonny…and I’m thrilled! Do you know how bad a gay couple has to be for a gay man to rejoice in them leaving the show? Chandler has been thinking about what to get for lunch for years. Freddie’s acting is about what you’d expect from Villager Number 3 in a community theater production of Mamma Mia!
And it isn’t just the acting. It’s the writing. From the inception of Will and Sonny as a pairing, they’ve been painfully boring. Sonny is the codependent mama’s boy who is obsessed with Will to the point that he had a “wish box” of him before Will even came out. Aside from Guy Wilson’s “slutty little bitch” tenure as Will and 2012 when Chandler’s Will had a personality, this character has been passive and the exact opposite of his mother Sami (played by soap queen Alison Sweeney). Sami is a force of nature who can turn the town of Salem upside down in just a guest spot. Will thinks plaid shirts are neat!
I hope Days brings on a Paul recast to compensate for getting rid of the only gay characters on the show, but I’m not holding my breath. It is rumored that a producer on the show cut the story with Leo being John’s son because it was allegedly too gay. If that was the case, I’m very disappointed. Producers should meddle in the writer’s vision if they are going to do something crazy like kill off a popular character out of spite for an actress. Not because something is “too gay.” It isn’t like Leo was doing poppers and voguing around the Kiriakis mansion.
General Hospital
On paper, you could make an argument that GH has been pretty good on LGBTQ inclusion. Brad has been front burner for over a year. They added a trans character named Terry (played by Cassandra James) who is an oncologist. This all sounds like good stuff, but it is surface level.
Brad was a big player in the baby switch story (where baby mama Nelle gave him her baby to torment Michael and his hypocritical family), but it was never his story. It was all about the Corinthos family. Parry Shen just had to play Brad being nervous and fidgety for over a year. Hell, the reveal wasn’t even about Wiley’s father Michael or Lucas’ pain at realizing his husband’s lie. It was about Carly and her pain. Bobbie (Carly’s mother) could lose a foot because of her diabetes and the whole episode would be Carly yelling at the severed foot for failing her mother.
And Terry is a dayplayer. She has no life outside of being a doctor and Nurse Liz’s occasional friend. She just exists for inclusion brownie points. I wish that wasn’t the case. I would like to see more of Terry, but the show would have to be interested in developing her. And they clearly aren’t.
The Young and the Restless:
Mariah and Tessa are a popular couple, in part thanks to the great on-screen chemistry between actresses Camryn Grimes and Cait Fairbanks. It should be a recipe for success, but they are so boring! Mariah cheated on Tessa with a blonde bartender and Tessa literally forgave her after about a week. That is the quickest someone has ever been forgiven for cheating in soap history! It had about as much story impact as if they had gotten into a fight at Ikea over which couch to buy. If a story has no repercussions, why should I care?
That said, that is exactly how Y&R treats its straight couples lately. They have two week story arcs that don’t matter at all. So I guess we can say all Y&R couples get the same boring writing. Yay for equality?
Now, if you’re thinking “Alan, soaps are mostly watched by older women. Why should soaps do better with LGBTQ inclusion?” Good question! Because they are watched mostly by older women. You want to attract new viewers who actually like seeing LGBTQ characters. The homophobic grandmas on Facebook aren’t actually going to stop watching. They’ll watch until the final time the hospice nurse gives them their pain meds and applesauce.
And you can tell different stories with LGBTQ characters. There’s a reason why Maya on B&B had such a big impact. It was different! It was fresh! It wasn’t another baby switch or merry-go-round love triangle!
Soap writers always seem to struggle with stories once the coming out story is over, which is stupid. There’s so much you could write. Tessa and Mariah could be having lesbian bed death and that could cause problems. Terry could struggle with dating in Port Charles. Will and Sonny could get new actors and new personalities.
Happy Pride to all my LGBTQIA readers! To my straight readers, I hope you had a decent June, I guess.
Dispatches from Soap Land:
*It is getting a bit uncomfortable watching so many people fighting to get Allie’s baby on Days. It is a baby, not a beanie baby circa 1998. Calm down.
*GH is going to do another Sonny themed week. This will be the third Sonny themed week since they ran out of new episodes in May. Even in reruns you can’t escape Sonny!
*I knew Y&R was going to win Outstanding Drama when I saw they submitted Neil’s funeral. GH submitted the Christmas Carol episode. That episode was cute, but you are supposed to submit actual drama. If Charles Dickens was the main writer of your proclaimed best episode of the year, that’s a problem.
Comments are closed.