What was her answer? Her selection(s) are agreeable, but it is Henderson's own follow-up questions that are the winners.
"Are you nice? Are you kind? What kind of a human being are you?"
After her answer, our responses probably don't matter. But are there any young gay characters on television? Are there any young LGBT characters out there in TV Land that are role models for any of our pre-teen or teenage LGBT youths?
Recently some of the daily soaps have been adding LGBT characters and storylines. I remember coming home from school and watching Bold and the Beautiful and going through junior high and high school with Robin Wright on Santa Barbara. I am not saying I would have faired better or came out of the closet earlier if there were gay characters on soaps back then or other shows, but it may have changed some things. I think I was fairing quite well since it was okay in my household for a young boy to watch soap operas, a practice that's probably not widely accepted in most homes today.
Just last week, one daytime soap has added a possible bisexual character to the mix. I say possible since they're still revealing his storyline to viewers. You can watch the clip below from the 11/26/2014 episode from Days of Our Lives (about the 3:10 mark). If you don't know the back story, go to Michael Fairman's blog here.
But are daily soap operas where characters need to be added? Maybe the addition of LGBT storylines are not just for the benefit of the youths, but to promote acceptance from parental figures, too.
Back to my question and Henderson's response. Maybe it really doesn't matter if there are young LGBT characters on television. Maybe having young characters that are nice, kind and a great human beings is enough?
I got sucked into "The Brady Brunch" Sunday marathon on a local station and one of the episodes revolved around Carol being jealous of Mike and another woman, Bebe Gallini. In response to Carol showing her concern, Robert Reed's line was, "I can resist her … I am absolutely positive!" Come to find out, they both knew there would be no issues. In this interview below, Florence Henderson stated she knew that Robert Reed was gay from the filming of the pilot. We can see that Henderson practiced what she preached. Thanks for being a nice, kind, human being!
Ok Instincters … Should there be more LGBT charaters in television that is viewed by our youth?
How young is too young to see gay characters on mainstream television?
I know my answers. What are yours?
I believe there should be
I believe there should be more gay/lesbian characters on television. As long as they are not having a big orgy onscreen, I don’t think you would really have to worry about children. If it’s not something you would want children to see in a straight situation, then don’t do it in a gay situation, and vice versa. Children are pretty smart, accepting, open minded. Sometimes more so than the adults around them. Sometimes I think we as gays are too “in your face” about it. Granted, we shouldn’t have to be ashamed of it, or pretend we’re something we’re not, but we don’t need to have a freaking gay pride parade every time we enter the room. We need to get to the point that “coming out” is no big deal. The response to saying “I’m gay” should be “so what”. Until it is, we’re not truly equal. To get to that point, we are going to have to stop shoving it in people’s faces. As I said, don’t be ashamed of it, just don’t shove it in their face either.
“Shoving it in people’s faces
"Shoving it in people's faces"? Is that a joke? So by existing it is being shoved in people's face? I see this same argument from people, who claim that having a gay character on TV is shoving it in people's faces. In other words, stay in the closet, don't let anybody exist, and then they'll be happy.
If massive weddings, bachelorette parties, engagement announcements, reality dating shows are fine, then I hardly think a few gay characters on TV are "Shoving it in people's faces".