PRIME TIME FOR GAY YOUTH.

Felicity Porter, 17, moved to New York City from Palo Alto, Calif., where she may well not have known anyone who was openly gay. Within a matter of months, she was considering marrying her gay boss, so that he wouldn't be deported, and supporting her new boyfriend as he dealt with his older brother's coming out. And it all happened on one evening--on a Tuesday in February, to be specific, on the popular WB network TV series Felicity.

For years, if not decades, youth advocates have lamented the fact that gay and lesbian young people have no images of themselves and of the straggles they face in the TV they watch. "When a gay teen living in Iowa does not see himself represented in the media, a message is delivered that says, `You do not count,'" notes Scott Seomin, entertainment media director for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, a media watchdog group based in New York City. Now that message is evolving, and more young gay characters are showing their fresh-out-of-the-closet faces on the small screen than anyone imagined possible only a few years ago. In recent months Felicity; Dawson's Creek; That '70s Show; Beverly Hills, 90210; and even Buffy the Vampire Slayer have explored issues as diverse as gay immigration, coming out to one's family, and lesbian parenting.

This trend has not gone unnoticed: In February a right-wing group called the Christian Action Network [see story on page 64] stirred up a brief news and talk-show clamor by calling for a "homosexual content" rating for network television. The HC stamp would join the S (sexual situations), L (coarse language), Y (violence), and D (suggestive dialogue) labels most networks already use, along with the industry-created system of ratings for parental guidance.

"In a lot of these cases, what [these shows] are trying to do is ... change the value systems of Americans and, in particular, change the value systems of children," warned CAN president Martin Mawyer on the February 23 episode of CNN's TalkBack Live. But so far the HC label has not caught on beyond CAN's donor base. People within the entertainment industry have been particularly dismissive: Motion Picture Association of America president Jack Valenti dubbed the HC label "inhumane."

"Talking about an HC-content label equates homosexuality, which is a lifestyle, to the other labels, which include violence and language," notes Felicity cocreator J.J. Abrams. "I understand that some people are offended by homosexuality, but there are people who are offended by everything. Where do you draw the line? At what point do you stop labeling things?"

Since NBC's hit show Will & Grace--with not one but two gay lead characters--has been on the air since September without significant backlash, it's clear that what has moved religious conservatives to action in recent weeks is not simply positive images of gay and lesbian lives on TV. Rather it's that this new wave of gay characters involves TV shows directed at young audiences.

That was exactly the focus of a protest against Dawson's Creek staged March 12 at the Wilmington, N.C., studio where the show is filmed. "We're sick and tired of Hollywood trying to force its pro-homosexual values down teenagers' throats," Robert Hales, 17, told the Associated Press. About 30 teens attended the demo, which was instigated by a visit from antigay activist Mike Gabbard, president of the Hawaii-based Stop Promoting Homosexuality International. Added Hales, "This show is 100 times worse than Ellen because they're targeting high school kids." With more youth-directed gay themed programming to come--a lesbian story arc on Fox's Party of Five will begin in late April--such protests can be seen as the latest skirmishes in an ongoing battle for the minds of young America 

This is not to say that gay and lesbian plotlines are taking over the airwaves. Although both GLAAD and conservative groups trumpet "more than 25" gay characters in prune time, there are really only seven who appear regularly in sitcoms and drama series on the six networks. (The rest exist, but they are "recurring and may or may not retinal.) That's out of over 600 regular characters on more than 85 prime-time network series.

That is, of course, seven more gay characters than were on television just ten years ago. As of 1989, Steven Carrington's sometimes-gay character on Dynasty had bid adieu to Denver, Roseanne had yet to meet Nancy (Sandra Bernhard), and the gay characters on thirtysomething and other series appeared only in "very special" episodes.

"The fact that it took so long before Dynasty [introduced a bisexual character to prime time] appalls me," says Dynasty superproducer Aaron Spelling today. Spelling went on to include lesbian and gay characters in many of his shows, including Family, 90210, and Melrose Place. "No one's ever objected; they love the gay characters," he says. "They loved Matt on Melrose Place. People are people, and I don't want to hear the rest of that bullshit about it."

Certainly the regular appearance of normal, healthy lesbian and gay youth in prime time is a new frontier. The daytime dramas One Life to Live and All My Children have had major stow lines involving gay teens in recent years, and My So-Called Life brought the first regularly appearing gay teen to evening TV in 1994, although the series was short-lived. In contrast, Dawson's Creek is a prime-time hit, and its newly out Jack McPhee (Kerr Smith) is one of the show's six regular characters.

"It seemed like it might be a really interesting development in terms of what we can do with Jack and how it can open up new stow possibilities," says Dawson's Creek executive producer Paul Stupin. "Not only on how it impacted upon him but also how all of the other characters on the Creek deal with it." One recent stow line had Jack's former girlfriend, Joey (Katie Holmes), trying to set him up with Collin (Nick Stabile), a college freshman who photographed Joey but was more interested in Jack.

Meanwhile, fellow WB teen hit Buffy the Vampire Slayer in February hinted at the possibility of making Buffy's friend Willow a lesbian, while earlier on Fox's 90210, Steve Sanders (Ian Ziering) learned that his mother is a lesbian. In December That '70s Show featured a surprise kiss between high schooler Eric (Topher Grace) and his gay lab partner (3rd Rock From the Sun's Joseph Gordon-Levitt). But by far the highest-profile gay or lesbian story line after Dawson's will be on Party of Five. In an episode scheduled to air April 28, Julia (Neve Campbell), fresh out of an abusive relationship with a man, will meet and bond with young lesbian writer Perry Marks (Olivia d'Abo)--and will call into question her own sexuality.

"Julia is in a vulnerable place because she's just gotten out of this relationship," D'Abo explains. "Perry saves all of her intimacy for her work; outside of her work she's sort of a literary nun. My relationship with Julia blossoms because she gets me to open up, and I bring the truth out in her writing."

"It seemed interesting that at that moment in Julia's exploration of herself, loving someone of the same sex was possible," adds Party cocreator Chris Keyser.

Having spent years as older sister Karen on the coming-of-age sitcom The Wonder Years, D'Abo knows the impact her work has on younger viewers. "One way of looking at it is, `Oh my God, there's so much pressure,'" she notes. "But the other is that if people who feel certain things but can't express it see you say what they're feeling, it's an enormous, powerful thing. I think it's a gift and a privilege to be able to do that."

The media frenzy in response to this story line, she adds, has only confirmed her feelings. "I was asked questions [at a press event] like, `Were you worried about playing a character like this?' The thing that worries me more is that our society is still so in the dark ages. I said exactly that and then [the questioner] paused and said, `Yeah, well, I'm from Tampa.'"

This is not the first time Party of Five has walked down this road. Claudia (Lacey Chabert) found a mentor and friend in Ross (Mitchell Anderson), her gay music teacher, and last season Sarah (Jennifer Love Hewitt) was prepared to lose her virginity to a guy who ended up being more interested in her boyfriend, Bailey (Scott Wolf). "To do a show that's set in a major urban center like San Francisco and not have one of the people be gay just seemed like it didn't represent what the world was like," observes Keyser. "We were trying to be realistic."

But more than 30 years into the gay rights movement, why only now are gay youth popping up on prime time? "I think it's a part of everybody's world now," says Will & Grace cocreator Max Mutchnick, who is gay. "I would imagine that certainly for my show, Ellen [DeGeneres] was a help. I think she did only good."

"The power of Ellen DeGeneres's coming out on- and offscreen cannot be underestimated in the annals of gay and lesbian history," adds GLAAD's Seomin. "It was a giant leap forward."

But Felicity's Abrams also cites a more practical consideration. "Everyone's trying to tell stories that aren't out there," he says. "In a way what's good about stuff like this is that the more these stories are out there and the more homosexuality is portrayed in episodic television, the more it becomes a nonissue."

Party producer P.K. Simonds adds, "I think our feeling is, the more you can present alternative lifestyles as normal and acceptable by characters, the more you break down those barriers." Still, he notes, the bottom line is entertaining viewers: "Because it's a dramatic event in a person's life, it's a dramatic event to present. You want to tell stories that are relevant to people and their experience."

Despite conservative protestations, all the producers emphasize that the majority of the viewer response to gay content has been good. "We got really wonderful letters from people," Abrams says. "I think there was one E-mail that was like, `Don't start bringing in homosexuality into the show. That's inappropriate, and I won't watch it.' Well, that's fine with me." The biggest stink, he says, was over the deportation of Javier, Felicity's flamboyant boss: "I cannot tell you what a huge response we got to that. People [were upset that] we wrote him out of the show." (In fact Ian Gomez, who plays Javier, left for a full time gig on The Norm Show.)

The reaction of gay and lesbian youth is particularly powerful, the insiders say. "I get letters from guys who are closeted and living in isolated parts of the country," Mutchnick says. "Will & Grace is a television show they can turn on even if they are closeted, and it's totally acceptable. I get letters that say, `I was able to come out to my parents because when they met Will Truman, they realized for the first time that gay people could be like that and that they thought there would be hope for me as their son.'"

"We've gotten an unbelievable response," says actor Kerr Smith, who embodies Dawson's Creek's Jack McPhee, a character based in part on series creator Kevin Williamson's own adolescent experience. "Someone told me that a teenage boy had posted on one of the Web sites that after watching the episode where Jack came out, he ran upstairs and told his parents he was gay. I was not prepared for that at all. Now I understand that along with this role comes a certain amount of responsibility."

It's a sentiment echoed by youth advocates. "I think the way Dawson's Creek is doing it is ideal," says Cole Rucker, director of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center's transitional living program for homeless lesbian and gay youth, many of them kicked out of their homes for being gay. "Not only is it allowing gay and lesbian youth to see that it doesn't necessarily cost them everything to be true to themselves, but also it lets straight kids see that it's cool to be friends with a gay person."

Rucker continues, "I can't emphasize enough how important these portrayals are. I have gotten phone calls, met youth in person--dozens and dozens of youth--who come in and say, `I was thinking about killing myself until I saw Ellen come out,' or, `Until I saw Dawson's Creek.' Obviously they are trying to entertain people, but they are truly saving the lives of young people when they present positive images on television."

"You know all those girls who grew up wanting to be Donna Reed?" asks Will & Grace's Mutchnick. "I hope that there are going to be a bunch of young gay guys out there who want to be Will Truman."

Matt Siegel, a 17-year-old gay student at Northfield Mount Hermon, a prep school in Massachusetts, says he can't recall any sustained positive images of gays or lesbians until the past few years. "You either had the `very special episodes,' or they'd have the `funny hairdresser' who would pop up and be flaming," he says. With Dawson's Creek, however, he anticipates "seeing how [Jack] grows and deals with all this stuff." Siegel says he found much of Jack's coming-out tale "very realistic" and looks forward to where they'll take the character next. "Hopefully, it will get rid of stereotypes like he's going to be a boy hopper or he'll get AIDS in the next episode or he'll molest a child. Maybe he'll have a monogamous relationship. That would be awesome."

But in its 8 P.M. time slot (Eastern and Pacific), Dawson's is a prime target for the HC rating. Mawyer warned specifically against "producers or the networks [who] know that their intent is to change the beliefs of a child or an adult or [that] the material is risque for a child." In such cases, he argued, "parents [must] be given a warning with an HC warning label."

Mutchnick is unfazed. "I take my cues from the National Broadcasting Company," he says, referring to the one network that doesn't use the S/L/V/D labels--and the network that's moving Will & Grace to Thursdays at 8:30 P.M. Eastern and Pacific time, right in the middle of its "must see TV" lineup. "The company that I work for doesn't take issue with the subject matter of my show, so much so that they gave me the primest piece of real estate that they own to put our show on."

The WB is equally steadfast. "We think that there is an intelligence to Dawson's Creek, an intelligence to Felicity, an intelligence to Buffy--and to many of the WB dramas--that is unique on television," says network spokesperson Brad Turell. "I think our viewers react and respond to that in wonderful ways. This was the creative vision of J.J. Abrams and Kevin Williamson, and it was done tastefully, it was done realistically, and it was not done exploitatively. We supported it 100%." The notion of an HC label, he adds, "is somewhat ludicrous."

Keyser says that Fox's only concern has been not exploiting Party of Five's upcoming lesbian story line. "I think we're wary of `Tune in for the Neve-kisses-a-woman scene,'" he says. On the other hand, D'Abo notes, "Maybe people who don't normally tune in to the show will watch because they'll think, `Oh, this is something spicy,' and they'll end up seeing something wonderful. This very sweet, honest, earnest relationship between these two women who have nothing but genuine respect for each other."

And what about that kiss? D'Abo explains that Julia "just plants one on [Perry] spontaneously after we have this hug--like how you'd kiss anyone on the lips out of joy. Then we both realize it feels kind of good and we kiss again. Then we're in this awkward place like, `What's gonna happen now?'"

The prognosis for what's gonna happen now with young gay characters on on Felicity is good, according to producer Abrams. Noel's brother Ryan may return next season, while an early May episode features two of the main characters, Elena and Sean, making a gay-inclusive documentary about life in New York. "Elena is saying, `You go to high school, no one's gay. You go to college, everyone's gay,'" says Abrams.

Whatever the next right-wing attack on gay TV content, the fact remains that all these images play a vital role in the lives of lesbian and gay youth. Rucker recalls one young lesbian in particular who grew up "in a rural community and didn't know anything about gay and lesbian people other than what she heard in church and school and from her family, who were fundamentalist Christians and very homophobic. Because this was all the information she had, she thought, I can't be a lesbian because I'm not a horrible person. I know I don't want to hurt or abuse other people." Then she saw the coming-out episode of Ellen and "it gave her the ability to claim her own identity."

But Rucker is realistic about the short-term impact of this battle for our youth. "The downside is that it resulted in her having to leave home to stay alive, because her family was unwilling to accept who she was. Because there's higher visibility, fortunately, people are able to realize who they are at a younger age. But there are some consequences to that."

RELATED ARTICLE: It's not easy being TV's token representative of an alternative lifestyle

A short, selective history of ongoing gay and lesbian characters on network series reveals the ups and downs of past "homosexual content"

DYNASTY

Upside: Steven (Jack Coleman) is the first bisexual on a prime-time drama. Downside: A murdered lover, a wife, a plane crash.

ROSEANNE

Upside: Nancy (Sandra Bernhard) even gets a girlfriend. Downside: Nancy was first married to Arnie (Tom Arnold).

ALL MY CHILDREN

Upside: Kevin (Ben Jorgensen) is one of daytime TV's first gay teens. Downside: He disappears after an explosion.

MELROSE PLACE

Upside: Matt (Doug Savant) is a sweetie and a prime-time regular. Downside: First he leaves, then he dies.

MY SO-CALLED LIFE

Upside: Rickie (Wilson Cruz) is prime time's first gay teen on every week. Downside: The weeks number just 19.

RELATED ARTICLE: No CAN do

The Christian Action Network hounds gay targets with more bark than bite

By John Gallagher

Martin Mawyer, president of the Christian Action Network, does not head the most influential religious right organization; the nine-year-old group claims a modest number of supporters (250,000), and even other conservative Christian groups question its political clout. But what Mawyer lacks in power he makes up for with clever publicity campaigns, usually against gay-related targets.

Mawyer's attempt to institute an HC rating system for "homosexual content" on TV is only the most recent CAN effort to capture widespread media attention. His attack on the National Endowment for the Arts, for example, featured such high-profile stunts as arriving on Capitol Hill with 535 videocassette tapes with excerpts from movies shown at a gay film festival that received NEA funds, offering a copy to each member of Congress. CAN also set up an unauthorized exhibit of NEA-supported art that Mawyer deemed obscene in a cloakroom of the Capitol building.

Mawyer was concerned with gay rights even before he formed CAN. A former drug user, he turned to religion after being inspired by a description of God in a James Michener novel. He labored as editor of Jerry Falwell's Liberty Report, where, among other crusades, he targeted Sassy magazine for promoting "teenage promiscuity" and "homosexuality."

Not all of Mawyer's publicity stunts have been successful, however. He was forced to admit publicly that Liberty Report had fabricated a news photo it ran on its cover. And one of his earlier efforts at CAN, a 1992 television ad that attacked Bill Clinton as favoring "giving homosexuals special civil rights," led the Federal Election Commission to file a lawsuit against CAN. The group was eventually fined $1.26 million, a penalty later set aside by a federal judge.

RELATED ARTICLE: Life vs. the homophobes

A lesbian teen fights back when her play is kept from her peers

By Anne Stockwell

Samantha Gellar has learned the hard way that Hollywood isn't the only battleground where gay and lesbian youth must fight to be seen. in her hometown of Charlotte, N.C., 17-year-old Gellar's play Life Versus the Paperback Romance was judged a winner in the city's annual Young Playwrights Festival contest. But when festival night came on February 18, the competition's sponsors declined to present Gellar's work with the other winners'. Their reasoning: Since her play deals with lesbian love, it's inappropriate for a middle- and high school audience.

Festival judges praised Gellar's talent and gave her the same $[dollar]100 prize the other winning playwrights get. But as Gellar thought things over, those niceties didn't cut it. "it really wasn't right what they did. It was really a form of discrimination," Gellar tells The Advocate. "Something had to be done."

The enterprising high school junior decided to produce her play herself. Before long a Capra-esque confluence of folks was joining together to get Gellar her reading after all. The city's gay and lesbian youth support organization got involved; so did volunteers from Charlotte Repertory Theater (already famed as the focus of Charlotte's 1997 cultural meltdown over a production of Angels in America). A philanthropist offered his performance venue, the Great Aunt Stella Center.

The reading, when it happened on March 7, was a hit. More than 400 people packed the Center. "It was like the best day of my life! I couldn't stop smiling," Gellar says. "They gave me a standing ovation! I about died. It was so wonderful."

In a panel discussion afterward, representatives of two Young Playwrights sponsors--Children's Theatre of Charlotte and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County school board--attempted to explain why young people should not be exposed to gay and lesbian work. The resulting dialogue, Gellar says, was "really good," though "the school board officials I do not think were well informed on the subject. A lot of times [they] ended up saying, `I don't know,' `I can't give you that information,' `I have no idea,' in bigger words."

Now that the reading is over, it's back to normal for Gellar--homework, catching a ride to school in the morning with her mom. But not for long: On June 14 Holly Hughes, Tony Kushner, and other leading lights of New York queer theater plan to do a staged reading of Life Versus the Paperback Romance at New York's Public Theater.

One can't help thinking that the folks at the Young Playwrights Festival actually did Gellar a favor. Profiled by Teen People, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the BBC, she realizes she's gotten the kind of attention that starts a career. "I think it's turned out better for my personal future," Gellar says. "But if I had the choice, I would give it all up to have it performed at the Charlotte Young Playwrights Festival just so the message would be put across that there's nothing wrong with [gays and lesbians]."

Epstein is West Coast editor of Soap Opera Digest and a regular contributor to E! Online.

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