I miss UGLY BETTY, which was for me, the gayest TV show ever. I don’t remember the wingnuts complaining or boycotting this show, & they shouldn’t have. Ugly Betty was represented nothing if not Family Values. For a” with it” show, Ugly Betty was at heart, very old fashioned.
Thank the TV Gods for Glee. Glee was made for me. The heightened, eccentric, & dare I say it- queer reality of the world of Glee, is the world I want to live in. I was meant to live in a universe where fully formed, orchestrated, & choreographed musical numbers burst forth as the modus operandi for expression.
Because, at a time when the ugliness of high school bullying is in the news, with tragic stories of kids victimized because they're different, Glee preaches that it's OK to be nerdy in high school. To love Broadway show tunes instead of football in high school. To be gay in high school.
It is easy for me to follow & identify with the characters on Glee. Jane Lynch’s masterful creation of Sue Sylvester is one of TV history’s top characters. I can relate to Emma’s OCD, & Rachel Berry’s Diva-ness; I had the heavy burden of simply being the best singer in my high school. I know how she suffers.
This season I have been most engaged by the character- Kurt Hummel. the fashionista & counter-tenor who is bullied by the jocks. He has a rigorous beauty regime & an impressive collection of designer attire by Marc Jacobs. Kurt is played by openly gay actor Chris Colfer. He originally auditioned for the role of Artie, singing Mr Cellophane from Chicago. Creator/Director/Producer- Ryan Murphy was so impressed by Colfer's audition he wrote the Kurt Hummel character into the show as a vehicle for him. Colfer: "It's good to have something positive, especially for kids in small towns, like myself, who need a little pick-me-up”.
Ryan Murphy: “When we started auditioning, I thought it was kind of ridiculous that we’re doing a musical about kids & expression & we don’t have the gay point of view. I thought it was important, but I would never want Chris to feel weird. More than the gay thing, he understood the thing about being the outsider because he felt that way in high school".
Growing up in Indianapolis, the son of a beauty queen and a semi-pro hockey player, Murphy asked his parents for a Vogue subscription at age 5, was ironing his own clothes at 7, & came out to his dad at 15: “Having a dad that loves you as a young man is a very powerful thing that you carry into the world. Because no matter what you do, in some weird, unconscious way, if you’re a guy, you always try to please your dad. I think it’s a great thing to put on television. You’ve seen the gay character that gets kicked out of the house or is beaten up. You haven’t seen the gay character that is teased a little bit, but wins & triumphs.”
When Chris Colfer auditioned for Murphy, the recent high school graduate with the big blue eyes & pale skin nervously walked into the audition & Ryan asked: “Why do I have the feeling you’ve been Rolf on The Sound of Music before?” Colfer: “I know I have Von Trapp written all over me, I actually was Kurt in The Sound of Music a long time ago.”
Colfer’s response to learning that his character is gay was fear. He grew up in the San Joaquin Valley, in a small town where most people wear cowboy hats & farm. Colfer: “no one has a sense of humor but they all drive trucks.” On a recent visit, Colfer noticed there were still many “Yes on 8” signs on lawns.
Colfer: “At first, I was absolutely terrified because I’m from a very conservative anti-gay town. Then people started saying, ‘Wow, your character is a lot like how Ryan Murphy would be,' & I didn’t know I was & that was good because that would also be terrifying. In the original script, they were leaning on him being overly flamboyant & I didn’t want to do that because it’s so overdone. So I made him more internal & superior.”
In the new century, TV has been representing gay people in non-stereotypical ways. We now have characters like Justin on Ugly Betty that embrace who they are & are in loving, fulfilling relationships. I was so moved by Justin’s coming out scene, which consisted of a tender dance with his BF at his sister-Hilda’s wedding. But, I have never witnessed anything as GAY as Kurt’s version of Roses’s Turn from the brilliant & complicated Laryngitis episode of Glee, earlier this month. Kurt can be a role model for young people who are just discovering who they are & also for adults who have been in Kurt’s shoes, albeit designer footwear.
Christopher Paul Colfer turns 20 years old today.
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