I was a fan of the SyFy show Battle Star Gallactica - as many of my friends were. So when SyFy announced and premiered Caprica - the prequel to the BSG series, I was more than excited to watch. It comes on Friday nights at 9, and most Fridays I'm out and about on the town so I dvr it to watch on Saturday morning or afternoon. This past Friday's episode, which was the series premier after the extra long pilot the previous week, was great. But something caught my attention.
As the Tauron mafioso Sam Adama is walking his nephew through the Tauron ghetto of Caprica city - he very nonchalantly explains to young William, future Admiral Adama, about he and Williams father began their lives on Caprica after leaving Tauron. He explained how he was trying to "pick up" a guy and William's father "picked up" the guy's sister. The conversation continued with Sam talking about how he and William's father got involved with the Tauron mafia before he breaks some one's window for his boss.
For the characters - the fact that Sam Adama, mafioso, series bad ass, is gay is no issue at all. For me the fan watching it was a "did he just say what I thought he said" moment, and through the power of dvr, and rewinding, I realized he did.
This to me is a huge step in the evolution of gays in popular culture. In decades past we weren't acknowledged at all or shown in a negative light. Then we were the humorous, or witty occasional characters. In the 90's the gays burst out of the closet and onto the main screen, most likely because of the horrors of the AIDS crisis. (well we gotta talk about the Gays somehow -- they're dying in the street!).
But still, when gays weren't presented as victims of disease we were presented on screen as the flamboyant caricature of what people assume gays to be.
I recall the first time that I had seen the ubiquity of homosexuality addressed, which in a way nullifies the ubiquity. In the Simpsons episode from 1997, Homer's phobia. Homer's new gay friend proceeds to take him to places all over Springfield where gays are present. At first the folks seem like your average Joe, then a song and dance number breaks out. It was funny and won many plaudits from media organizations and gay advocacy groups alike for it's positive treatment of the gay community. At one time Homer proclaims:
You know me Marge, I like my beers cold, my TV loud, and homosexuals FLAAAMMING.
It was funny, but it again characterized, like the song and dance numbers, how the straight world wanted, needed, to identify and classify the gay community.
Now most major networks have regular gay characters. From Will & Grace on NBC to Brothers & Sisters and Modern Family on ABC to Glee on Fox, and various Soap Operas on all the major Networks. Each show portrays the character in one light or the other but they all share one thing - the gay character is obsessed with being gay, that's their focus, that's their point of existence, that's how the world sees them -- navel gazers. It's just another caricature.
Granted these stereotypes are based in reality. There are certain segments of the community that are flamboyant, there are segments that are obsessed with being gay, I think it's the evolution of the community as we try to assert both our existence and negotiate our matriculation into the culture and society at large. That's the point of marriage equality and efforts to repeal DADT - it's not for special treatment, it's for equal treatment. We're here, we're queer, and we just want to be left alone.
Perhaps more shows will go the route of Caprica - perhaps others already have, there's a lot of TV programming out there folks -and show gays neither as flamboyant caricatures or as the gay character, after all that's the direction that gay community is moving - acknowledged, accepted, integrated, quiet ubiquity.
Or perhaps Caprica will go the direction of the others, and Sam Adama will make a production of his sexuality - it's too early to tell, but there is promise.
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