Shows where gay people are just normal?

Looking.

We were just wondering the same thing...

Maybe Grey’s Anatomy

Schitt's Creek

One of the best was Friday Night Lights where the coach's daughter was in a gay bar in the next town (forget why) and she spotted one of her father's assistant coaches. That was it, nothing came of it, it was never mentioned again. He just kept appearing as one of the assistant coaches.

Schitt's Creek, though he is technically pan.

The CW Arrowverse shows have several characters who are gay/lgbt but it isn't their main "thing".

"Scandal" was like that. As schlocky as Shondaland shows can get, that's one thing I respect about them and which was pretty refreshing at the time (and, maybe, still is): sexual orientation and/or race do not define characters. It is just one aspect of who they are.

Happy Endings.

The Wire

Some shows I've watched that come to mind

How To Get Away With Murder

Torchwood

Teen Wolf

Caprica

Batwoman

LOL, R9, not sure Omar was "just normal", though I credit where you're coming from. If you wrote a thesis on The Wire and really dug down into it, his homosexuality probably would turn out to be part of the reason for his outsider status, but it's certainly not the main driver of his everyday behaviour, which is at least as "normal" as Stringer's.

Kima was as "just normal" as any of the other cops, for sure.

If you really want to dig back in the past, The Doris Day Show from the late 60s/early 70s had a San Francisco setting. (Doris rented an apartment above the pizzeria with a spiral staircase...rent $150 a month. Kaye Ballard was the landlady.) If I recall as a teenager, there was a gay male couple who lived in the building. One of the partners was Billy de Wolfe. Anyway, nothing about this was called attention to.

Pete Buttigieg's Presidential Campaign.

And God willing its spinoff will be The Buttigieg Administration.

That Oprah show where she and Gayle went camping!

It stopped being good a long time ago, but the Walking Dead has had lots of gay normals for a quite a while.

Perfect Strangers. Balki was gay, wasn’t he?

Don’t laugh, but no one bats an eye at the lesbian couple on Young And The Restless. Their being gay is as boring as everything else about them.

Happy Endings

Would this be considered normal? Sara Ramirez was a beautiful Latina (and she is not fat, I saw her in person at a fundraiser she was tiny!)

She went from this:

To this on Madame Secretary.

She plays a character named Kat Sandoval a political advisor.

Sarah is actually married to a MAN and now identifies as Bisexual

Supergirl. I watched it with my twelve year old daughter and the sister came out as gay, saying she didn't know if she'd be accepted (she was). I knew I'd done something right when my kid looked at me and said "Why would she think that?" She was just another character after that.

Oscar Martinez from The Office is one of my favorite gay characters.

They got jokes out of him being gay and other jokes about him being Latino, but some of his best bits were about him being Oscar.

IIRC, both the new Dr. Who and late season Buffy had prominent gay characters that were not seen as strange. Of course with timelords and vampires running about I suppose they faced stiff competition.

If they aren't struggling, straight or gay, they aren't funny or interesting.

Think funny fat Rhoda vs thin dull Rhoda

r13 Actually Billy de Wolfe played a "confirmed bachelor" who lived alone in the apartment next door to Doris. But there was also a middle-aged male couple who lived together in the apartment house. They were briefly seen on several episodes, but they were never identified as gay -- this was the early 70s, after all.

Still, Doris had a refreshing view of gays -- at least gay actors -- on her show. She said she enjoyed de Wolfe and gave him the best lines, as well as her lasting friendship with Rock Hudson.

[quote] "Scandal" was like that. As schlocky as Shondaland shows can get, that's one thing I respect about them and which was pretty refreshing at the time (and, maybe, still is): sexual orientation and/or race do not define characters. It is just one aspect of who they are.

I liked that Cyrus was evil, and even murderous. A total villain. And gay. But his gayness was not a result of his villainy or vice versa. That show became a mess after a few years but they really did a good job with some of those characters. And of course Jeff Perry's a very good actor and played him very well.

I still haven't caught up with Brooklyn Nine Nine but the police chief there is gay.

Wow r21, I can't believe that's Sara Ramirez in the 2nd pic!!

Sara butching out has been discussed on other threads. I think she is either transitioning or was considering it. It was all Very Jill Soloway.

Don Finlayson (played by Joe Hasham) in Number 96.

...and played by the amazing Andre Braugher, R28!

The first season of Laramie has a homoerotic subtext between Slim and Jess that is fairly obvious. They toned it down quite a bit in succeeding seasons.

Sarah Silverman Program

The Closer (TNT), they had two gay characters - Buzz (civilian technician) and later Dr. Morales (medical examiner). Both are just normal characters doing their job like everyone else, there were no background stories on introducing them as "gay" etc, or big plots involving them in "gay" related settings etc. The only times you learned they were gay is through small conversations like "I am off work to meet my boyfriend", and that's the end of it.

Umbrella Academy

Vermont.

Yale

Dark Blue Kiss and Sotus both great Thai dramas.

Master of None

Is this because I'm a lesbian?

Smallville wasn't an officially gay show but it had an insane amount of sexual tension between Lex and Clark. Even TV reviewers noticed it. It was gayer than anything on Bravo.

ABC Evening News with David Muir

Thank you, R42. Superman and Lex Luthor are the textbook description of "just normal".

Comedy Central's The Other Two

The Golden Girls.

WILL & GRACE!

“Better Things”, in which gay and bi and gender-fluid are all just people, not tokenized or endowed with magical qualities.

I miss that show.

Dawson's Creek

Doesn't exist, sweetheart. Closest you can find is maybe Looking but even those gay guys are all written as horribly fucked up assholes. It's hard to find a show or movie where gay men are portrayed normally and accurately because most media written about gay men or with gay characters in it is written by straight people for straight people.

Yes, we know, R51. There are no gay men in the entertainment industry. There really should be some affirmative action.

And don't start with that old song about how only gay men can write about gay men, only women can write about women, only blacks can write about blacks, etc etc etc, whinge, whinge, whinge.

dawson's fifty load weekend

R52 You know what, you brought up a really great point. Look at how embarrassing and offensive it is when white people try to write black people. That's the perfect example of why we're probably never going to see a movie featuring normal gay men being normal gay men. If Hollywood can't even portray black people normally how the hell do you expect for them to portray us normally?

There are gay men in the industry, we all know that. That doesn't mean they're writing gay male characters, or even accurate gay male characters for that matter.

I'd blame Hollywood but they're just giving the people what they want. If the success of the Queer Eye reboot has proved anything it's that normal gay men don't sell to straight people, we have to be stereotypical kitschy queens who exist only to give makeovers if we want to market ourselves towards breeders. It's fucked, but such is life for the gay man. To quote Fiddler On The Roof, "We suffer, we suffer, and we suffer in silence, right? Of course right."

Well I thought most of the jokes Eddie Murphy did on SNL were the same tired old stereotypical tropes.

I don't know people were clapping for that. It wasn't bunch different from the controversial stuff Leslie Jones said. I really hate SNL for cementing these stereotypes. I know NYC is very polarized and racist but have they really never met a rich, educated black person? They cannot do one SNL skit with out bringing race up!

Yes, gays who want this to change need to write their own stuff.

This Close on Sundance

R35: Buzz was straight, it's the actor the one who is gay (i think he is married with one of the producers). The closer and Major crimes were very gay friendly, a lot of openly gay actors on recurring roles, and two part of the regular cast.

Rusty was another gay character, but being gay was a big part of his arc. But his boyfriend Gus was a different story, it was not a matter of fact like in Morales case, but not a big deal either

R54: But that has little to do with being gay or straight, it's the writer the one who makes the difference. The writer of Spartacus is straight and he treated his gay characters exactly the same that his straight ones, you can't say the same of the Teen Wolf or Quantico writers and both are gay

Good Trouble and Empire

Sounds boring, OP.

The French thriller series “Black Spot” (on Netflix) has a bearish gay police officer played by Hubert Delattre.

Well there's Dutch in The Strain - she's more bi-sexual than lesbian though.

Liberace Christmas Special

R54, you're talking about shit writers. Admittedly, Hollywood is full of them, but this thread is not meant to be about them. (And if you want to go down that path, how many shit gay writers over the decades have depicted a straight romance that was in any way normal, or constructed a woman who was neither their feared mother nor a witty drag queen?)

To look more directly at your point: How embarrassing was the portrayal of the black characters in The Wire, whose showrunners were white? The actors in that show reported that the underbelly of Baltimore treated them like kings while they were filming there, so besotted were they by what they were seeing on screen.

By contrast, how embarrassing was the portrayal of the gay characters in the US Queer as Folk, by wildly untalented gay showrunners?

OR, there's the UK Queer as Folk, also by a gay writer but a good one. Whose portrayal of the straight relationship between the leads in his Doctor Who was also wonderful by straight people's lights.

It's not about identity. It's about talent and insight. Some gays and blacks like to think they're unknowable mysterious creatures, but to a talented writer who really looks, this is manifestly untrue.

Oh that's quite alright R52. Whatever you guys want to talk about that furthers understanding and promotes gay people being seen as normal in Hollywood is fine with me.

I want everyone to feel comfortable and voice their opinion. It might help make better movies were a screenwriter to happen upon it. You never know.

OP Are you a self loathing homosexual who just wants to pass and be accepted and normal?

Detective James Shay from Damien (the short lived TV show which is a sequel to The Omen) has a husband and a son.

Will & Grace, obviously.

Tyrone Giordano’s character in The Family Stone ( Of the Hallmark Christmas genre). Yes, he’s deaf, but I read that he’s deaf in real life. His character and his character’s husband even adopt a child to no one’s surprise.

Southland — canceled a few years ago, but worth streaming. One of the cops is gay, semi-closeted, most of his storylines have nothing to do with his sexuality.

Short-lived Caprica on SyFy. One of the main characters was in a committed relationship with a man and it was never integral to the plot. If not for the events of the show they would have been just a normal couple.

R66 no I want to see a really cool gay world or world in with gay people exist and they are treated with dignity and respect and all the human emotions every one else has and it's completely valid. I think we're getting there but I just want to see more love for gays. Without it having to be an over the top character.

R72 It's coming. I'm writing it right now. Working on season 3.

r55, those were his old characters. People applauded because they were what started Eddie. We didn't live in a PC society when you couldn't just be funny back then. Yeah Buckwheat could have been a better skit if they played up the idiot judges a bit more having them lost to who it could be with the Masked Singer.

I loved Mr. Robinson's neighborhood then and now.

r70, yep that was well done. You didn't know he was gay until he was at a gay bar. Then you still weren't sure, because he was scoring drugs. Then you saw a guy in his bed and you were like oh wait. And there was one story about a kid that was bashed for being gay, he was slightly protective and gave the kid some advice. He never brought it into his professional life. It wasn't a big deal he had bigger issues than being gay to tell a story about.

Cool. Because after we fight the fight and defeat the bully , and the sun rises the next day, the storm has cleared, the dust has settled, I want to see that world where no gays are persecuted; the story is not about persecution or for straights to be entertained watching cartoon gay character comedians. It just gays living their lives, in peace.

Cool. Because after we fight the fight and defeat the bully , and the sun rises the next day, the storm has cleared, the dust has settled, I want to see that world where no gays are persecuted; the story is not about persecution or for straights to be entertained watching cartoon gay character comedians. It just gays living their lives, in peace.

The lesbians on The Good Fight.

I don’t see how, with all of this normalcy and positivity, you could have a show worth watching.

honey, define normal? do you think the majority of our culture is normal?

R80 : I'm thinking he means like a normal guy and no "gay voice".

Please define "normal" OP. The adjective means so many different things to many people. I'm of the camp that thinks "normal" is a setting on the clthes washer or dryer.

I'm sure you mean well, but by vaguely throwing around the word in reference to gay people troubles me for various reasons. It implies many of us are abnormal. Perhaps you wish to say less stereotypical gay men and lesbians. Perhaps you intend to convey you're looking for butch male characters, perhaps you meant those gay and lesbian people who only dwell in a straight world? I really don't know, and never quite know what to make of such statements.

Be specific, and say what you mean.

[quote] most media written about gay men or with gay characters in it is written by straight people for straight people.

You don't know what the fuck you're talking about. Most gay characters on TV are written by gays themselves and it has been this way for at least the last 10 years. No one dares to write LGBT characters today without having gays in the writer's room.

Tidelands

The Wire

Just read this interview with Dan Levy about Schitt's Creek.

The two fat gay gamer guys on the Sarah Silverman Show who expressed affection for each other by saying "I am so gay for you, bro."

Oscar on the Office

Oddly enough, I'd add the US version of Queer As Folk, only because they showed a range of gay characters from uber-femme Emmett to relatively masc Brian and while there is much to mock about the series, at least the guys weren't the stereotypical swishy queens with gay mannerisms you get on shows like Will and Grace or Modern Family. Granted most were played by straight actors who weren't trying to affect "gay" mannerisms, but when I was a teenager it was great to see that not all gay men were portrayed as freaks

R50 did you see the same DAWSON’S CREEK I did?

Because as I remember it, the only gay main character Jack would not stop angsting and making a huge production about his sexuality, and his über-Christian grandmother had a problem with it too. Jack only calmed down years later in the last season when it turned out Pacey’s cop big brother was also gay and wanted to date him while raising Jack’s dead sister’s baby (hey, it was the Creek, it had to be tragic).

Also the actor who played Jack, Kerr Smith, was notoriously super uncomfortable about the whole gay character thing and never really totally embraced it as far as I know.

Calvin & Heath, the two students in rival fraternities i ABC Family’s college dramedy GREEK, are a great example for OP. The boys would show open PDA and have romantic dialogue but it was never seen or presented as “Other”, just as any other love story among the many on campus.

For extra woke points they were an interracial class-disparate couple (unusually, with the Caucasian guy written as the less intelligent poorer one) who got a happy ending going on a year of world travel together after they graduated.

Relative to the time & context in which he appeared, Jodie Dallas of ‘Soap’ (played by Billy Crystal) was portrayed as a normal down-to-Earth guy and was treated normally by his family & friends once they got used to the idea of him being gay. Sadly every other person around him did not concur and conspired to make poor Jodie’s life hellish, but it was 1970s America and everyone thought gays were a joke or an aberration so what could you do?

[Quote] and his über-Christian grandmother had a problem with it too.

Wasn't it his dad who initially had a problem with it?? And the uber Christian was Jen's grandmother?

There were 4-6 lesbians (I couldn't keep up) on Once Upon a Time. Of course, no one on that show was normal.

Nobody wants to watch lesbians here

R93 except for the lesbians that do hang out on Datalounge.

R91, yeah, as I recall Jack went to live with Jen and her grandmother, both of whom were very supportive.

As for Kerr Smith, he seems to be proud of the role now that LGBTQ issues are much more mainstream, but back at the time he fought against having to display affection to other male characters on camera and told Entertainment Weekly that kids didn't need to see that sort of thing on their TV screens.

L Word.

r93, I'll watch lesbian stories if it's a good story and is well done. I just got Netflix and watched the Black Mirror episode San Junipero because a) I knew it had won an Emmy and b) I knew it featured one of my favorite songs -- "Heaven Is A Place On Earth" -- as a key element in the story...and, OMG, it was SOOOOOO good.

It would be nice to find something that good that features gay male characters. So far, what I've found on Netflix has been underwhelming.

I find this thread intriguing. For the last 15 years with the advocacy of visibility which really started in the late 90s early 00s there has been plenty of normal gay characters. There was a time in TV it was almost a cliche to write masculine and boring gay recurring or guest characters for shows.

There are many to list. As regulars, Max from Happy Endings is a great example of a greatly well written gay jock character. It was base don the show's creator best friend who is a real gay jock and the writers room had a couple fo gay writers too so that helped. The black lesbian in Marry Me which basically had the same crew as Happy Endings was equally non stereotypical. Great jokes too.

As for film, if you care to look there are many films, specially foreign with regular gay characters. The last one that comes to mind to me is God's Own Country, a masterpiece that deserved all the attention Call me by your Name unfortunately had. The Brazilian film The Way He looks also has two regular gay teen characters , one of whom is blind in the film. It was a festival hit around the world.

This remind me of that Sigourney miniseries where she played a female presidential nominee who was once First Lady. Her character had a gay son played by Sebastian Stan, whose sexuality wasn’t really an issue but whose rampant drug use & suicidal tendencies (connected to the pressure of fame at a young age, and having a high-achieving brother) did present a dramatic problem.

Then he started dating a closeted family-man Repug and shit hit the fan.

Does it strike anyone as odd that someone who belongs to the DL community wants to see gay people who are "just normal"?

Good luck round here, OP.

Not at all R100, clumsy as it sounds, OP means non stereotypical flamboyant and effeminate.

Hunting Season starring pocket twink Ben Baur.

And EastSiders.

R101, you're projecting. Read what OP actually said at the top of the post. Nothing to do with what you said.

AC 360

Sulu on Star Trek Beyond

r101, Interpreted Op "normal" to mean his character wasn't the gay character but it was just backstory or who they dated socially.

So Joe is a CSI tech who happens to be married to Bob, every storyline in it isn't about him being gay it's about him doing his job and solving crimes. Instead of Joe gay csi tech who has to make a crack about something DL would or something connecting to the gay community is involved in every line he says or invoked by every conversation he has.

I think the Fosters was a good example. You have the two lesbian moms trying to adopt some kids and do their freaking jobs and not lose their house. But the high school gay boys. The foster son was having guy troubles just like any other straight adolescent would and it seemed like normal everyday teen-aged angst. Does he like me or not. Are we just friends or more. Then his second crush wanted to move to fast, etc. Good show. I liked everyone but Callie - the lead teen.

[quote] they're not any special protected class of people.

What does this even mean?? Complete right wing phrasing. NO WHERE are gay people “ any special protected class of people.”

W&G was awful, offensive, stupid, unfunny, and the antithesis of what this thread is about. Without that goddamn show, this thread would be three times longer than it is.

Clayton and Doug would have made a better [italic]Golden Girls[/italic] spinoff than the [italic]Empty Nest[/italic] spinoff [italic]Nurses[/italic] ended up being.

Spongebob

Sesame Street

Chip ‘n’ Dale’s Rescue Rangers

Cagney and Lacey