During the last decade, conflicted gay teenagers have become a staple of daytime soap operas. But not the long-running One Life to Live, which I watched occasionally after Dark Shadows when I was a kid.
The most you can hope for are gay subtexts, like the bromance between Trevor St. John and Dan Gauthier, or the "non-gay" bullying plotline of 2011.
But by February 2011, he was 14 and a gay-vague high schooler, and he became the target of bully and all-around bad guy Jack Manning (Andrew Trischitta, top photo).
No anti-gay slurs were used, but the homophobic context was made obvious when Jack stole Shane's clothes and then posted naked pictures of him on Myface. Shane was so upset that he attempted suicide, got a psychological evaluation "to cope," and dealt with the situation by dropping a barbell on Jack's foot.
Shane remained a gay-vague bullying victim through the next year, with plotlines involving Jack killing Gigi, but not really, Shane shooting Jack, but not really, and Shane hiring Jack's girlfriend to secretly record a confession. Finally he and his mother and new stepfather went to England, where they hoped he wouldn't be bullied so much.
Ever hear of punishing the bully?
I've heard that heterosexist nonsense before: everyone can relate to stories about heterosexuals -- it's universal human experience -- but no one who isn't gay could possibly relate to a story about gay people.
No word on whether either of the bully-victim duo is gay in real life.
Actually, One Life to Live had an outstanding storyline from 1992-1993 about gay teenager Billy Douglas. This was Ryan Phillippe’s first role.
ReplyDeleteAround the same time as the Ryan Phillippe/Billy Douglas story, I believe the local priest/minister in Llanview (he wore a clerical collar) had a gay brother who died of AIDS, and they actually brought the AIDS Quilt on “One Life.” There were a bunch of OLTL characters who were lining up as being either phobic or allies - these were interesting times in 1992-93. Later, Chris Evans’ real-life brother Scott Evans played Oliver Fish, an openly gay character, who had a romance with Kyle. I believe OLTL even had a massive gay wedding at some point, where even Dorian married a woman, but of course Dorian being Dorian, she had some ulterior motives.
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