June 12.
As you've undoubtedly heard, Isaiah Washington is no longer among the cast of Grey's. He insulted gay people, then tried to do a 'rewind' with unconvincing apologies and explanations until, finally, ABC dropped his contract.
But their moral indignation is less than convincing. In the past, ABC has condoned the portrayal of gay male characters as either serial killers, mass murderers or suspected deviants in no less than three popular daytime dramas.
In 2000, All My Children's Bianca Kane 'came out' to the world, and instantly shot to prominence in the show's overall landscape. Sadly, such treatment is something to which her male peers can still only aspire. In 2005, One Life to Live featured a married D.A. who was secretly gay, and who, in order to keep his secret and protect his career, dispatched a positive litany of people with a gleeful sang frois that would leave Bundy positively chartreuse with envy. In the same year, a gay male College student was the focus of unbridled vitriol after being suspected of using the Date Rape drug on two female Freshmen.
And both these stories aired just weeks after GLAAD lauded the network for its portrayals of gay people.
ABC might say these were isolated aberrations from less enlightened times? Not true. All My Children has just wrapped a storyline in which an androgynous, cross-dressing rock star was suspected of having massacred half the female population of Pine Valley. He then entered a clinic, returned as a she, and was immediately confronted by hordes of angry town-folk eager to turn her into a Prada PiƱata for these ghastly but unproven crimes.
ABC made no conciliatory statements regarding these plots, nor was anyone even cautioned, let alone fired. And it bears considering who would ultimately make such a call; ABC is a branch of Disney, a corporation not exactly famous for strident homophobia.
With a track record of storylines as disparaging as these, and the pungent hypocrisy implicit in dismissing an Actor for a gay slur, while allowing three major shows to portray the same target group as universal, homicidal deviants, it's pretty clear Mr. Washington is not the only ABC employee who should be shown the door.
As you've undoubtedly heard, Isaiah Washington is no longer among the cast of Grey's. He insulted gay people, then tried to do a 'rewind' with unconvincing apologies and explanations until, finally, ABC dropped his contract.
But their moral indignation is less than convincing. In the past, ABC has condoned the portrayal of gay male characters as either serial killers, mass murderers or suspected deviants in no less than three popular daytime dramas.
In 2000, All My Children's Bianca Kane 'came out' to the world, and instantly shot to prominence in the show's overall landscape. Sadly, such treatment is something to which her male peers can still only aspire. In 2005, One Life to Live featured a married D.A. who was secretly gay, and who, in order to keep his secret and protect his career, dispatched a positive litany of people with a gleeful sang frois that would leave Bundy positively chartreuse with envy. In the same year, a gay male College student was the focus of unbridled vitriol after being suspected of using the Date Rape drug on two female Freshmen.
And both these stories aired just weeks after GLAAD lauded the network for its portrayals of gay people.
ABC might say these were isolated aberrations from less enlightened times? Not true. All My Children has just wrapped a storyline in which an androgynous, cross-dressing rock star was suspected of having massacred half the female population of Pine Valley. He then entered a clinic, returned as a she, and was immediately confronted by hordes of angry town-folk eager to turn her into a Prada PiƱata for these ghastly but unproven crimes.
ABC made no conciliatory statements regarding these plots, nor was anyone even cautioned, let alone fired. And it bears considering who would ultimately make such a call; ABC is a branch of Disney, a corporation not exactly famous for strident homophobia.
With a track record of storylines as disparaging as these, and the pungent hypocrisy implicit in dismissing an Actor for a gay slur, while allowing three major shows to portray the same target group as universal, homicidal deviants, it's pretty clear Mr. Washington is not the only ABC employee who should be shown the door.
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