The Gays of Our Lives
By Josh Aterovis

It's no secret that I've been pretty dissatisfied with the portrayal of gays and lesbians on television -- especially the major networks -- for some time. It seems like if a show has a gay or lesbian character at all, he or she only exists to be the butt of jokes. At the very least, these shows very rarely depict our lives realistically -- which is why a recent storyline on the long running CBS soap opera As the World Turns is getting so much attention.

Before I go any farther, I have a confession to make. I don't watch daytime television. At all. I'd never get any work done if I did. I almost never turn the TV on before 8 pm. However, I am familiar with As the World Turns. I grew up watching it with my mother and was quite addicted throughout my teen years. (My root, anyone?) So when I heard about the gay storyline on ATWT, I was curious. ATWT was actually the first daytime soap to introduce a major gay male character in 1988. The character, a fashion designer named Hank, was only around for one season before he was killed off.

All My Children introduced the first lesbian character in 1982, although she was also written out after a year. Since then, there have been several other gay characters on various daytime dramas, but most have been secondary characters that were expendable. Their storylines were mostly minor and the characters were quickly forgotten or written off.

As the World Turns has returned to its groundbreaking roots with their current queer-friendly storyline. Not only has this new gay character been a part of the show for years, he's a member of one of the central families on the show. What's more, he's a teenager, and his coming out story has been handled with sensitivity and as much realism as you can expect from a soap opera.

This isn't the first time the soaps have dealt with a gay teen. Ryan Phillipe played a young teen struggling to come out on One Life to Live in 1992. All My Children introduced a lesbian teenager in 2000, and General Hospital began a gay male teen storyline about the same time as As the World Turns last year. However, the General Hospital character apparently has not been as central as the one on ATWT.
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