How does it move our community forward?
I’m an “urban gay man” and I never related to Will. Or Jack. I found it a difficult show to watch, primarily because Debra Messing was hammier than brunch. I like Messing, she’s a champion and activist for gay and civil rights and I applaud the hell out of her. But man, she’s a ham.
Sean Hayes, who plays clowny “Jack”, was not exactly wide open about his sexual orientation during the height of the show, but who could blame him, right? God forbid Sean should get TYPECAST. I met Sean in New York some summers ago.
It was Gay Pride weekend. I asked Sean if he was in New York for Pride. He answered that he was there for a photo shoot and would not be attending Pride.
Gosh, Sean, sorry I asked.
Playing a gay character but not being out. Let’s contemplate that one.
How would Black people feel – or anyone feel – if members of the hit show “Empire” were played by actors in blackface? When they wrap shooting each day, they wipe the black off their face and get on with their cozy white lives. Extreme comparison? Not really.
So what was so earth-shattering about Will and Grace? Will and Grace positioned gay men in center of the media spotlight, exposing them to middle America. Okay, but I’d rather expose Middle America to simple truths about homosexuality, rather than constant hammy one-liners, extreme urban characterizations, and marginalized assumptions about the clichéd concerns of gay men.
A promo recently aired for this W & G re-boot. One of the sound bytes is Jack looking at Will and Grace and snarkily remarking, “Well, look here, a middle-aged lady, and Grace.”
The line made me cringe. The lack of any real and true intimacy between Jack and Will — as friends, as gay brothers (as I like to call my gay male friends), frustrated the hell out of me. Additionally, I do not desire Straight Hetero-Normative Middle America to listen in on the mean-spirited and off-color barbs we gay men might snap off to one another when nobody else is around.
As far as I’m concerned, it does absolutely nothing to move our community forward.
“Oh, but it’s just a sitcom,” one might say. “Sitcoms don’t have to do anything except entertain!!” Yeah, but you know what? Gay men have more at stake right now. I’m more concerned with Gay Reality than with gay fictional sitcom.
Gay Reality is tough, I know this. That’s why we need our TV shows, to escape and be entertained with pretty people, laugh tracks and celebrity walk-ons.
So how about “Will and Bill” this Fall on NBC? Will and Bill will be played by out gay actors. Will and Bill will live together and fight for their right to marry as they explore an open relationship which adds loads of hot sex to their lives while also slowly tearing apart the fabric of family they’ve fought so hard to protect.
Hilarity ensues when the right-wing make death threats against Will and Bill and take their adopted child away. The guffaws resound when out of despair, Bill falls into the empty world of circuit parties and crystal meth.
No?
Okay. Sorry for that suggestion. See you at the bar on “Will and Grace” night.
