AUGUST 29, 1997 GAY PEOPle's ChroNICLE

SPEAK OUT

Lots of gays in TV shows, but they can't even hold hands

by Al Kielwasser

Over the past few years, there certainly have been more lesbian and gay characters on prime-time television. Yet, in many ways, these images are also more of the same. Despite the recent increase in number of gay, lesbian and bisexual characters on television [see GLAAD column, page 15], these characters share at least one unfortunate trait with their media ancestors--they are all, oddly, asexual.

That trend promises to continue into the future, if the network's fall plans are any indicator. For example, as television's first lesbian lead character, Ellen Morgan, moves into the new season, she is not likely to get a girlfriend. According to Reuters news service, ABC's entertainment chief, Jamie Tarses, recently told a convention of FV writers that the network plans "to move slowly in developing the Ellen character as an open lesbian."

"Ellen will, at some point or another, be dating or pursuing relationships, but that is a bit down the line," Tarses explained. “Our feeling is [being gay] is a realization that the character has just made, and now [she] must explore making that decision. It's going to be about baby steps for this character to get comfortable with the decision she's made.'

When asked by one reporter at the convention if Ellen's audience might "see any baby kisses," Tarses responded, “You know, we haven't gotten that far down the line."

In real life, ironically, sitcom star Ellen DeGeneres was able to come out and, without much deliberation, pursue an open, honest relationship with another woman, actress Anne Heche. As entertainment reporter Andrea Orr pointed out, however, ABC's homophobic hesitation is typical of most networks, which have permitted lesbian and gay roles "but have avoided heated controversy by denying those characters much of an on-air sex life"

This fall, a sitcom for the UPN network titled Head Over Heels will feature yet another asexual queer. In the new series, openly gay actor Patrick Bristow will play lan, a celibate bisexual character.

At a recent UPN press party, Bristow explained: "My character has chosen celibacy as the most suitable way of life for himself. Instead of being someone who people try to figure out, 'Is he gay or is he straight?', he's someone who we know has been omni-sexual in his past and has dated and had relationships with both genders. He has a lot of mystery."

Kinney Littlefield, a reporter for the KnightRidder news service, found a simpler explanation in Bristow's tortured excuse. According to Littlefield, "Making lan's love life pasttense is an easy way to avoid the on-screen conundrum of gay or bisexual romance.”

Even Bristow has complained that homosexual characters “are not equal yet" with their heterosexual counterparts.

"I couldn't give an actor playing my partner even really a peck on the check without it raising somebody's eyebrows," he conceded. "And yet, straight people can French-kiss for 15 minutes without taking a breath."

Such heterosexist bias is not limited to television, but warps the roles of lesbian and gay film characters as well. A number of Hollywood movies have included a sort of "faux lesbian" sexuality, entirely directed by the masturbatory fantasies of straight men. For the most part, however, lesbians and gays on the big screen are not much more sexual than their small-screen counterparts.

As screenwriter Paul Rudnick (Jeffrey) points out, the industry has yet to produce an "openly gay film heartthrob."

"Gay characters are usually limited to being comical sidekicks, or deeply noble and tragic characters," Rudnick said in the July 7 New York Post. Simply put: Hollywood's homosexuals are not very "sexy."

Whether in film or television, the unfair restraint placed upon sex, love and romance is especially problematic for lesbian, gay and bisexual characters. A character whose life is defined by sexual identity is, in effect, denied an identifiable sex life.

Especially on television, lesbians and gays are not only rendered sexless, but essentially loveless as well. Even when they are characters in late prime time, adult homosexuals are not permitted to kiss, cuddle or romantically hold hands, things that heterosexual children can do on Saturday morning cartoon shows.

Something of a "don't show, just tell” policy, this media bias diminishes the liberating capacity of all lesbian and gay characters. Without social or romantic elaboration, even breakthrough portrayals like Ellen will become increasingly less innovative-and more insulting. As long as they are denied fuller lives, the message conveyed by such characters is essentially homophobic: Lesbian and gay love is too sickening to be seen.

Along with other critics,media researchers Darelene Hantizis and Valerie Lehr agree that many of the television characters touted as

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positive may actually work toward a negative end. Inasmuch as homosexual desire challenges the most basic precepts of heterosexism, these sexless media conventions represent "a containment of the threat."

Denied relationships with each other, lesbian and gay characters are ultimately deprived of “community.” It is only through a sense of community that any minority group can convert personal pride into political action, and challenge the bigotry of an oppressive majority.

Insist that well-intentioned networks fi-' nally adopt a fuller (and more equitable) approach to the sex lives of lesbian, gay and bisexual characters. Contact Mike Sullivan,

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President, UPN Entertainment, 11800 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, Calif. 90025 (e-mail messages can be sent directly from the UPN web-site, www.upn.com/ email2.htm); Jamie Tarses, President, ABC Entertainment, 2040 Avenue of the Stars, Century City, Calif. 90067, e-mail abcaudr@ccabc.com, web-site www .abc.com (copy any correspondence to ABC Broadcast Standards, 77 W. 66th Street, New York, N.Y. 10023-6201, fax 212456-2381). ♡

Al Kielwasser, formerly of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, is a freelance writer living in San Francisco

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