Heroes adds a gay character--but it's a lesbian

[make56]

I thought zach is gay..since He have an come-out sence, right?

 

[GanymedeATL]

And in what way exactly was Zach or his sexuality important to the show? There is a difference between making one of the 'heroes' of the show ( the ones with actual powers) and making a supporting character gay....especially a supporting character who would have been written out anyway, regardless of sexuality, since the main characters of that plot have left him behind as they have been written into the main fabric of the show. As to the actor not wanting to play gay, I wonder if that is based in actual fact, as there doesn't seem to have been a point to having Zach's character's sexuality determined one way or another. It has no bearing on any of the plots of the series.(Granted, though, he may be only male character who hasn't been shown to be blatantly hetero, but I wonder if that isn't a response to the desire of fans to out anyone who hasn't shown an immediate hetero bent.)

 

[man_crazy]

The guy who created the show gave an interview to Entertainment Weekly and said he was written as gay, but the agent for the actor who was cast refused to let him play gay. He said it would harm his career. So they rewrote the part as straight. I don't understand why they didn't just fire the actor.

Wow. I did not realize the truth behind it all. Most of the folks I knew thought NBC was to blame for all of this.

 

[GanymedeATL]

Zach's 'coming out' was to mirror Claire coming to terms with her own uniqueness. The fact that they were both outsiders is why they got along so well

I'm sure it would have been magical, but, still, not the same as having a gay ongoing 'hero', and also not enough to have kept Zach as a regular player. Claire's story wouldn't have worked as well with sidekick, and Zach's outsider status and how he related to Claire worked better, IMO, without the gay aspect, as it had a wider appeal to any not-so-popular high school student.

 

[GanymedeATL]

I don't get it, are you annoyed that none of the 'main' characters are gay males? Or that there was a gay male character at all?

I am annoyed that, given the opportunity to present a gay hero, the folks in charge took the easy way out and decided to add a female gay character, which is almost always more TV-friendly. (Also, given the number of male characters with powers and the number of female characters with powers, statistically it's odd that a gay character with powers would be female rather than male.
The Zach character only bugs because it sure seems that we're supposed to be placated by the fact that we almost (or so we're told...it never actually made it into the show) got a gay male character, and we should just shut up and be happy about it. I don't get it. He was a VERY minor character, whose storyline would be over now regardless. Even if he had been gay, he wouldn't now make sense as a regular cast member. I haven't obviously seen how the lesbian character will be portrayed, but I'm betting she'll be more central to the main storlines than Zach would have been.
And, again, I would watch the show gay male character or no, but it sure seems unnecessary that every male character has to be portrayed as straight, even when there's no particular reason story-wise to know the character's sexuality, just to make sure that we don't 'damage' the character by maybe not jumping to the conclusion that he's straight.

 

[luminum]

What are you talking about? Lesbians get represented in the media all the time! Or at least more so than gay men. I think we can all see that if a TV Co. had to choose ebtween a lesbian and a gay man, they'd always choose the lesbian because it's somehow 'safer'. And that's usually based on sexist ideas of women and of what 'lesbians' mean to heterosexual men.

So adding this girl I think only propogates the ideas held by a society that believes that the love between two women is more acceptable and marketable and has greater appeal than the love between two men, when really, it's all the same, including heterosexual relationships/sexuality.

So hurray for the lesbians, not only do they get one more portrayal in mass media, but they also get it because some asshole up top probably sexistly thinks a lesbian cheerleader is going to get all those straight guys to watch Heroes.

And once more, a gay male character (any gay male character...we're starving for content) gets nixed.

 

[luminum]

What I'm saying is that instead of choosing a gay male character, which may be considered 'dangerous' and yet isn't, it's tiring to see another lesbian on tv that's really only there to exploit some heterosexist wet dream.

But I also think that it's true that regardless of titillation, lesbians are far more accepted in televised media than gay men, butch or not.

 

[Royal Heart]

What are you talking about?

Lesbianism/female bisexuality for the sake of titillating men is (arguably) represented in the media “all the time.” Real lesbians (who own their own sexuality and refuse to be used for the gratification of men) are portrayed as much as gay men are...maybe less.

When was the last time you saw a plethora of “lesbians” on TV who didn’t look like Playboy models?

It's just amazing to me how gay men like to bitch & whine about the so-called visibility gay women sometimes get when they are willing to be exploited for hetero-male pleasure…as if it were a real sign of “acceptance.”

Come on now.

Amen.

I would only object to this new character if the character was exploited to entertain hetero-men with lesbian fantasies. If it's a character whose sexuality is as ThePayback describes, I'll be thrilled.

I would be disappointed if they had added a gay male character who was a stereotype better suited for a sitcom. I would be thrilled if it was a gay man who was just an average guy with super powers, who happened to be into dudes.

For me, it's not about gender, it's about a character's quality or integrity.