Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

Hey everybody!  Something involving a c-file got all screwed up and our blog has been down for a few days.  However, thanks to my trusty bloghost Geoff at Radio Left, things are shipshape again.

Today's Post-Gazette included an AP story on the current gay storyline on soap opera, As The World Turns, featuring a young gay male couple, Luke and Noah.  Luke is the son of two of the most prominent families in Oakdale, Illinois – the Snyders and the Walshes.  Noah is new to town, but has already distinguished himself with a homicidal military father and a long-lost mother-turned-madam.  Said mother was killed by the homicidal father.  Said father also tried to kill Luke, who ended up paralyzed in the process.  Fast forward a few months, Luke is walking fine and enjoying mucho macho hugs with his lover boy. 

What he isn't enjoying is any on-air kissin'.  Fans aren't pleased and suspect that company bigwigs at Proctor and Gamble are avoiding the face to face time to appease their homobigot viewers.  It is an interesting twist for a soap that has developed the most realistic and sensitive gay character in daytime history.  It has been infused with soap dramatics, but Luke's coming out was handled really quite well. 

[PG Spokeswoman] Tharrington laughed when asked about any behind-the-scenes debates over showing intimacy between the two men. “You wouldn't even believe,” she said.

Producers are committed to telling the story of the romance, she said, adding she hoped the audience would recognize what “As the World Turns” is showing, instead of just what it isn't.

“We feel like we're doing so much right here,” she said. “We're telling a story that no one else is doing. We're telling a story that has really engaged our audience.”

Well, that's just bullshit. You want credit for pandering to perceived homophobia(apparently, no one is formally organizing the nuts)????  Sure the story is good, but neutering two perfectly healthy young men for the sake of being “unoffensive” is pretty darn well, offensive.  As for a story noone else is telling, that's not quite true.  All My Children's Bianca had a multi-year lesbian story, including a love affair with a transwoman.  It was typically dramatic and had its flaws, but it certainly told a new story.

People aren't clamoring for full frontal nudity and sex scenes, after all.  They just want you not to pan to the mistletoe during the kiss.  P&G is just being silly.