You know i was thinking just before about how there is this image of america being so conservitive and closed their peoples beliefs and yet in the us you guys have so much more i guess viewing of gay culture and life i guess, i mean through shows like ellen, brothers and sisters, queer as folk, queer eye for a straight guy, will and grace and alot more, here in australia, there is a show they had 1 lesbian kiss and the family groups, the ultra conservtives went crazy on about how '' how dare you expose how children to this'' mean while in the same show they have 15 year old girl having random sex getting pregnant and having an abortion. I remember when queer as folk first came on aussie tv and they had this weekly review show the on channel it was on and these people wrote in blasting the station for showing it cause '' why do you waste air space with this when only 5% of the population care to watch it'' or '' why are you exposing our children to this filth'' And actually i dont think i have ever seen a gay male aussie couple on tv in an ongoin series and from the reaction to the lesbian kiss, i dont think we will see anything like it for a while. i just think its weird how a country like australia that supposed to be so open and i guess so called accepting of other races, cultures, beliefs, relgions, how can just two guys or 2 girls kissing or saying they love each other be such a problem? It just intrigues but also i guess disheartens me that people can take something as a show about people being tortured and murdered and raped over the fact of 2 people kissing or having a relationship in a country that is supposedly all about mateship and acceptance. I wonder if australia will ever accept the idea of gay and lesbian culture as being mainstream life in media and other ways? and will the idea of gay marriage and gay families go the same way?
There's actually quite a bit of LGBT stuff on Aussie TV. In Rush Stella has a girlfriend, Doctor Charlotte Baumont off All Saints was apparently Gay, old soaps Number 96 and Prisoner had gay and lesbian characters, Neighbours has had some lesbianism, but apparently there were some gay guys back in the 80's or something, Zoe from Pacific Drive was lesbian, and then there's been a lot of cameos in major shows like Neighbours, Home and Away, Packed to the Rafters and the like with gay characters. We've had a fair amount of gays on reality shows, mainly Big Brother and Australian Idol. Anthony Callea and Tim Campbell was the first "celeb" gay couple we've had here. Oh and Tim Campbell is an example of a gay actor/host. There are quite a few gays in our TV/entertainment industry, but the issue is that our output of local media is very low, so naturally we won't see a lot of LGBT stuff in TV shows. But the times sexualities other than hetero has been on Australian television (with the exception of the horrid Home and Away indicent earlier this year) it's been pretty accepted. With imported shows there's gays all over the place now. Nurse Jackie and Glee are a couple of great examples. Nurse Jackie moreso because even though there's a couple of gay characters they don't make it the centre-stage part of that character, which is pretty amazing considering it's a 30-min/episode show, as opposed to the general 46 or so min/episode length of most other shows, and Nurse Jackie had 10 episodes produced I believe, when most other dramas are 13 to 22 episodes a season. So basically they've been able to tell us so much about these characters in shorter times and without actually screaming out "I'M GAY DARLING". So, my answer to your question is that it IS there, and it is somewhat mainstream already for some groups. But sadly we don't have the whole 'gay family on television screens' thing happening yet. I'd love to see a gay couple with kids on one of our soaps, but I believe that gays shouldn't be slotted into shows if it doesn't suit the storylines being explored. If it works with the show, then go for it, but if it doesn't then leave it out. Oh by the way, this should be in Entertainment and Technology.
