Over the past few days, in the UK (around 10-10:30 am) on channel four-which is
not a cable channel-they've dealt with issues surrounding gays, coming out, being the "only gay in the village" gay promos.....
Like I told my mom, they should air this at eight-nine pm, when people can actually watch it-she agreed.
At the moment we have two soaps-the only soaps I watch-dealing with gays. ITV1's Emmerdale, which was the first soap to have a gay character (15-20...or something like that years, ago). Anyhow, at the moment we have Paul a wonderful gay man, wonderful drag queen, and then we have Grayson, who is closeted to the outside world, the
exception being his wife, his mother and Diane (who found out through no fault of her own).
The second soap: Hollyoaks, where we are introduced to John-Paul, who tried to change himself by dating/sleeping with this one girl who was crazy about him. Only for her, to out him and his straight friend, whom he kissed. As a result, JP's life is thrown upside down, he wasn't ready to come out, bullying at school, being beaten up for been queer.
He takes his sister's boyfriend to a gay bar, for support, only, to have his mother and two/three (I can't recall) of his sisters (he has five sisters) to show up and make things worse, especially his homophobic sister, Mercedes. Who believes that her brother wants to turn her boyfriend queer.
John-Paul's family are supportive, towards the end of the episode we see Mercedes and John-Paul argue, only for Mercedes, to throw a Dolly Parton CD, to show her support, before storming upstairs. It ends with the two of them and JP tell her, how he doesn't want certain cds .
We are also introduced to Chris, a lovable, friendly, crossdresser, bisexual man, who time and time again, gets all this shit thrown in his direction, simply, because of the way he dresses, but, he
doesn't take it lying down. He continues to fights.
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Britain has always dealt with issues surrounding the gay world.
Heck, 10 years ago (thereabout), when EastEnders dealt with a straight man falling for a gay man, there was a massive out cry, but the producers and writers went full steam with the storyline.
They also dealt with AIDS/HIV, in the early-mid 90s, and it brought to light all these issues surrounding AIDS/HIV. How straight people can get AIDS, how peoples' bigotry and ignorance, got the better of them. How you can't catch AIDS from touching the same things, etc, etc.
In Hollyoaks, they just dealt with that issue.
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Anyhow, my question.... to all you Yanks, Canadians, Aussies, and anyone who isn't British.
Has a soap or drama in your country, ever dealt with these kind of issues Excluding the gay cable channel-US- and gay dramas, because, that does not count.
I want to know whether or not a straight show-be it drama or soap-has actually dealt with gays, aids, etc, etc.
ETA: I've decided to make this post public, because I'd love to get people's views.