Law a w a re o f g a y issues_
___ LA
“Outing” linked to AIDS, alcoholism and gay teen suicide
job of presenting both sides of the debate over
“outing.”
“Outing" exposes closeted politicians who
f the future of gay and lesbian rights
vote against gays, as well as celebrities who
depends on our increased visibility, we
are popular enough to help change people’s
should be heartened by the increasing number perceptions of gays and lesbians. By choosing
an example of the later, L A . Law appeared to
of television shows willing to spotlight gay
stack the deck against the practice. Without
themes. When an episode of a television series
the charge of “hypocrisy” that is usually
addresses gay issues, not only is there the
levelled against the political targets of
opportunity to educate millions of Americans;
“outing,” the episode’s "outee,” who had lost
there is proof that such matters have entered
the mainstream and become legitimate
his family’s acceptance and been forced to
resign as a policeman, did indeed appear to
subjects for debate.
__
have been victimized in the name of a social
cause.
But for the first time on national television,
the dimensions of that “cause” were fully
delineated. Again and again, the defense
attorney (subtly identified as a lesbian and
played by the accomplished Linsay Crouse)
NBC’s L A . Law has always been
parried Kuzak’s attempts to portray the cop’s
uncannily topical in choosing its storylines, so
victimization with eloquent testimony about
it seems particularly significant that its May
how the closet victimizes even more. For
10 episode examined the issues behind the
once, the philosophy of “outing” was clearly
phenomenon of “outing,” which has so
explained and linked to the larger issues of
divided the gay community in recent months.
AIDS, alcoholism and gay teen suicide.
Series regular Michael Kuzak (Harry Hamlin)
If that sounded a little dry and preachy,
represented a hero cop who had ben dragged
note how the issues surrounding “outing”
from the closet by a crusading gay journalist.
resonate within the larger context of the show.
While the legal issues (freedom of the press
Regular viewers may remember that last
vs. invasion of privacy) clearly led to a
season, Kuzak represented a gay Olympic
decision in the journalist’s favor (he was only
athlete who had lost endorsement contracts
printing the truth about a public figure), the
when he came out. In that episode, Kuzak had
show managed to do a surprisingly thorough
flirted with the sleazy tactic of blackmailing
B Y
ED
S C H I F F E R
I
protested against these shows, but I doubt
very much he likes them. For all their
insistence on healthy heterosexuality, they
create imaginative space for alternative
lifestyles.
The point is not that there are two or three
queens lurking in that “full house,” but that
America is maturing to the point where it
might tolerate it if there were. Of course we’re
not there yet. Both My Two Dads and Full
House seem to resist the implications of their
own premises by regularly featuring moments
of “heterosexual panic” in which the men who
live together must use jokes to exorcise the
possibility that they are more than good
friends. But evenhere, the defense
mechanisms of mainstream American culture
are showing signs of wear. When Bob Saget
and Dave Coulier donned drag in a recent
episode of Full House and ended up in jail,
the predictable homophobic jokes gave way to
campy good humor.
Still, “heterosexual panic” is likely to get
worse before it gets better. For things to get
better, we must work to rid the airwaves of
things like the Kraft cheese commercial that
has been playing for several months. In it,
several young children in mouse costumes are
preparing a school play. The announcer’s
pitch for preferring Kraft Singles over its
rivals — “things that look alike aren’t always
the same” — takes on new meaning when one
boy mistakes a male classmate for a female
one: he recoils in horror upon discovering that
the object of his affectionate gesture is
another boy. As long as children are given
cues for heterosexual panic, the calmer
counsel of shows like L. A. Law may make
little difference to their parents.
▼
the closeted judge, so it was almost as if his
newfound fervor in protecting the cop’s
privacy was the result of guilt over his own
misguided attempts at "outing.” W hat’s more,
the cop’s story played interestingly against the
episode's other plotlines: Kuzak decided to
move to New York to be near the dying father
he had long ignored; Benny decided he didn't
trust his sweetheart enough to marry her; and
Amie decided to marry his girlfriend in a
desperate attempt to protect himself against
his own promiscuity. These realistic
depictions of “normal” heterosexual families
only undercut the cop’s claims to have lost his
family. Without minimizing his pain, the
show managed to suggest — perhaps even
more than it realized — that he was well rid of
the illusory life he had struggled to maintain.
It remains true that network TV is
committed to maintaining an artificially sunny
view of the traditional American family. The
very depiction of homosexual lives sheds a
rather harsh light on that view of things, as the
Rev, Donald Wildmon and other right-wing
activists preaching a gospel of "family values”
recognize only too clearly.
Television’s nervous approach to the
challenge presented by the true range of
domestic possibilities in American life may be
seen in all those shows featuring same-sex
roommates. CBS may have removed the
lesbian overtones from Bagdad Cafe in
making it a sitcom, but Whoopi Goldberg
injects a rather strong feminism into a show
about two women who have left their
husbands. Like The Odd Couple before them,
shows such as My Two Dads and Full House
feature men living together in unorthodox but
viable “families.” The Rev. Wildmon has not
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