gay characters?
pdesan
they?
Chrystal
>
> Are there any gay characters currently on ONe life to live? If so who are
> they?
To my knowledge, not currently. A few years ago, '89 or '90, I seem to
recall a young boy (Scott?), who after accusing Andrew Carpenter of
molesting him, turned out to be gay. However, to my recollection, the
story line did not go on much longer.
judith
Was it that long ago? That was the year I was home on afternoons. The
boy (he was a teenager, about 16, I think) was Billy Douglas, played by
Ryan Phillipe (who has since gone on to star in such movies as I Know
What You Did Last Summer and Studio 54.) It was actually Marty who
accused Andrew of soliciting sex from Billy; she had overheard Billy
confiding in Andrew that he thought he might be gay. Marty was still in
the throes of unrequited love for Andrew and chose this means to lash
out at him for not returning her affections. (This was the pre-rape,
wild child Marty.) Billy was still deep in the closet and wouldn't tell
anyone why he was with Andrew, and Andrew refused to publicly deny that
he was himself gay, on the principle that such a denial would reinforce
the belief that homosexuality was bad. I appreciated his intentions,
but I always thought his logic was bizarre. Having sex with another man
is fine, but having sex with a minor isn't! And he was planning to
marry Cassie -- didn't he think that might clue people in to his sexual
preference? Anyway, he took a good deal of abuse from a lot of the
town, but eventually was entirely vindicated (I forget just how; I think
Billy came out in front of everyone at church), and in the process he
reconciled with his estranged father Sloane (the one who broke up Viki
and Clint). Sloane came to terms with his homophobia, having previously
rejected his other son, Andrew's brother, who had died of AIDS
(offscreen -- we never met him.) The whole intolerance storyline
climaxed with Andrew, Sloane, Billy, and assorted friends and supporters
trekking down to Washington to add a patch to the AIDS quilt in honor of
Andrew's brother.
Billy hung around for some months afterwards, but he never had much to
do. There were some nice scenes with his mother (a stuffy society
matron) coming to accept her son as he was. However, since at least 75%
of all soap storylines involve love pairs, triangles, rectangles, and
other polygons, the writers were at a loss with Billy, as they could
only match him with recurring players we didn't care about. (Can't have
more than one gay character at a time on contract!) IMO gay storylines
will never last more than a season until a soap commits to at least
three gay regulars (of the same gender.) If there's only one, there's
no romance; if there are only two, there's no conflict. It's sort of
the same problem minority characters have on soaps; they're often stuck
dating each other, and there usually aren't enough possible
configurations to make it interesting. Most minority families only
really put down roots when there is a biracial romantic connection with
someone from one of the core (invariably white) families. So I guess
this means gay characters will only come into their own on soaps if we
get one in a core family. Or if we get bisexuals! That would really
open up the romantic possibilities! Andrew/RJ! RJ/Max! Max/ASA! <gag>
Oh dear. My fevered brain has apparently run amok.
Anyway, speaking of the homophobia summer: does anybody else remember
the Midsummer Night's Dream episode? The one where Megan comes back
from the dead, and only Tina can see her, and she gives her loved ones
(Jake, Andrew, Viki etc.) comforting dreams? I loved that episode.
Megan was a *great* character. (And Jake was really really cute.) And
I miss Cain! I much preferred Tina with Cain to Tina with Cord (that
Tina, anyway.)
OK, it's the middle of the night and I'm really rambling. I'd better
shut up now before I start going on and on about Marco Dane.
Judith
Chrystal
Boy, have you brought back some memories! You have correctly recapped
that season! Kudos to a true OLTL fan! I too, loved that Tina and
Cain. They made such a perfect couple for each other, and made the
story lines interesting!
judith
>
> Judith,
> Boy, have you brought back some memories! You have correctly recapped
> that season! Kudos to a true OLTL fan! I too, loved that Tina and
> Cain. They made such a perfect couple for each other, and made the
> story lines interesting!
Thanks! I'm glad to see that I wasn't the only Tina and Cain fan out
there. I was quite put out when the latest Tina came back and claimed
Cain had reverted to his old lowlife ways and had been thrown in
prison. That was an insult! He wouldn't do that -- and if he did, I'm
confident he could have gotten away with it! I wish they had come up
with a less derogatory explanation for his absence. Hey, Tina would
lose her head if it weren't attached to her shoulders -- why couldn't
she just have lost Cain somewhere?
I'm having more fun reminiscing about the "good old days" than I am
speculating about the future of the show. I'm sure that's a bad sign.
Anybody else have a favorite storyline/character they want to talk
about? How about this -- can anybody explain Eterna to me? That was
before I started watching.
Judith