Citing “Glee” and “Modern Family,” article claims Hollywood opening arms to gay characters and families

In journalism, three is a trend. So with Modern Family and Glee ratings hits on television and The Kids Are All Right an art house hit in theaters, USA Today in an article in today’s paper proclaims: When it comes to gay marriage and gay families, politicians are still bickering and courts are still deliberating. But in entertainment, it’s all over but the shouting.

Instead of being depicted gay people as miserable, dysfunctional or tragic, gay relationships and gay families are portrayed as just like other families — normal, unremarkable, no big deal.

Modern Family creator Steve Levitan said of his decision to include a gay couple (played by Emmy nominees Eric Stonestreet and Jesse Tyler Ferguson) raising a baby as character:  “We set out to do a family show with different kinds of families because it seemed to us that families are changing and (a gay family) was a logical type to explore. We didn’t think it was the most commercial choice. We thought it might marginalize our audience a bit, but much to our surprise, it hasn’t.”

The article wonders: Is Hollywood following the culture, or is the culture following Hollywood?

Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black (Milk) points to Kids – which stars Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as a couple – as particularly valuable in its portrayal of a family with two women as a couple raising their kids:  “It shows how regular our families are; it goes a long way toward gay and lesbian families introducing ourselves to straight families as not that much different. And unlike in Milk and so many (past) gay movies, the lead characters don’t die.”

There’s not much in there that isn’t covered on a more incremental basis by Greg In Hollywood (except for the anti-gay types who I have no time or energy for) but I will say this: these depictions are so important to the culture. They are especially important to queer kids who think they are alone and to people to see that gay and lesbian folks aren’t all that different from straight folks a lot of the time.