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After receiving a flunking grade from GLAAD for the lack of LGBT representation on their network, CBS has finally decided to throw some gays into the mix. When I say throw, I literally mean throw. The outcome: random gay characters written into clichéd roles.
This is the second year in a row that CBS has flunked GLAAD’s responsibility index. The group’s index studies networks for diversity and inclusion of LGBT characters, and CBS received the lowest grade out of all major networks, scoring a lowly 7%, which was largely thanks to its reality programming.
“For several years,” GLAAD said in the study, CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler “has publicly promised greater LGBT-inclusion in scripted programming and has consistently failed to deliver.”
In response, Tassler was quoted as saying, “We’re disappointed in our track record so far, [and] we’re not happy with ourselves.”
As a result, CBS has responded by hastily penciling in three gay characters to their upcoming fall line-up. The highly-rated …
… sitcom, Rules of Engagement, will now have a lesbian character with a re-occurring role alongside main characters Jeff and Audrey as their surrogate, and get this – they will introduce her character as a member of Jeff’s softball team. No, unfortunately I’m not kidding. Apparently, CBS believes that adding a stereotypical softball-playing lesbian is the answer to their short-sightedness. While they are at it perhaps they could really shake things up by giving Audrey a gay hair stylist with a snappy sense of style.
I can only imagine the board meeting that took place over at CBS after the GLAAD report came in. I imagine after hours of lamenting, one suit said to another, “Pretty much all lesbians play softball, right?” Then Viola, a lesbian softball-playing surrogate, is born.
In addition, on The Good Wife, Alicia Florrick, played by Julianna Margulies, will be given a gay brother. There will also be a gay character on the new sitcom, Sh*t My Dad Says.
Really, REALLY CBS, that’s the best you can do — a homosexual brother, a lesbian surrogate, and one gay guy on Sh*t My Dad Says? I’m not impressed. These characters appear to be after thoughts, and it’s apparent that there was no substance given to the addition of these new faces. It was more of a thrown together let’s-save-our-asses-quick! kind of move on the part of CBS. It’s as if they were so desperate to please GLAAD that in the process forgot to address the real issue: why their programs notoriously leave out the gay community, and unsurprisingly, this isn’t the first time CBS has been in hot water with GLAAD. During this year’s Super Bowl they showed some truly appalling behavior by turning down an ad for a gay dating website, mancrunch.com, but allowing one from the oh-so-bigoted, anti-gay, Focus on the Family campaign.
CBS’s acknowledging that they need to make changes is the first step. Let’s hope by next fall they pull it together and takes a stab at really adding diversity to their programming.
Cripes.
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Is this really a big deal? I’m not against the inclusion of LGBT characters by any means, don’t get me wrong. But why should a television show (or any other medium) have to have LGBT characters in it just for the sake of diversity? I can understand if CBS was slandering these people (in a way they did with regards to last years super bowl) then they would have to do the right thing and put them in a positive light. But just because some organization says they don’t have enough diversity, to me, doesn’t mean much.
Exactly my thoughts!
Is there a formula for casting GLBT people now?
Is creativity to be ignored or stifled to satisfy some arbitrary idea of how many GLBT there should be on television?
This smacks of the days affirmative action – a miserable idea that should be so far in the past it should be a dusty, vague memory.
Wait, lesbians are supposed to like softball? Somewhere I missed this stereotype. Interesting.
Why is GLAAD bullying CBS into introducing gay characters? Why can’t the TV channel choose whether they want a gay character, or not? Also, if the CBS audience is mostly Republican-based, they are not going to be all too happy introducing a gay character which would make them lose audience and sponsors. I think forcing them into changing their television shows could ultimately be detrimental for their fight. Stuff like this only makes me think gay rights group are a bit akin to PETA… just too much, too loud, too holier-than-thou, and completely missing the point.
GLAAD can go to hell. What makes them the voice of anybody? Just another group of loudmouth holier-than-thou assholes. On a related note I have always heard the lesbian softball thing, and to be honest I think it makes sense (sporty women, camaraderie, lesbianism). But in my personal experience one of the places where I was hit on the most aggressively was a woman’s softball game. And on that note, is it just me, but is it not rude that after your team crushes my team. To come over and try to give me your number? Just sayin.
Team Rosalie…
OMG… did you see that Team Rosalie is almost as big as TE and TJ!?…
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