We’ve certainly had plenty of ups and downs when it comes to representation. Yet, we must not forget that a majority of these shows almost exclusively catered to white, upper-middle-class storylines. Despite the fact that millions of Americans witnessed two men raise a happy and healthy daughter from the comfort of their living room sofas, it took a fan campaign to lobby Disney-owned ABC to finally allow Mitchell (gay actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cameron (straight actor Eric Stonestreet) to kiss (it finally happened in 2010). That was followed by Modern Family, the most popular TV show in the country for years. Luckily Will & Grace debuted in 1998 and the groundbreaking NBC series convinced many that gay people might not be so toxic (and wouldn’t scare off advertisers) - so much so that Vice President Joe Biden later credited it with changing his mind about same-sex marriage. RELATED: How TV is Putting the ‘B’ in LGBTQ - And Why It Matters It may appear quaint now, when we have TV series like Hulu’s Love, Victor (about a Latinx teen exploring sexual fluidity) or Netflix’s Bonding(about sex work and alternative sexuality), but the great gay panic set off by Ellen DeGeneres coming out on her sitcom in 1997 was a bombshell that didn’t necessarily convince the networks that they’d open the gates to LGBTQ experiences.
That left a great swath of humanity desperate to see something that resembled their lives. And yet, for decades, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people rarely ever saw displays of affection. Who hasn’t learned to kiss from watching others do it onscreen? Before the internet and everyone having a device in their pockets, that was the way most of us casually absorbed images of desire and love.
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