After a long separation, a biracial female couple have passionate
sex. Before his wedding, a man explains to his young son what it means
to be bisexual. A transgender woman makes love to a cisgender man; later
she reunites with her estranged son.
These are just a few of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender storylines present in this season of American Horror Story.
Since its inception in 2011, the horror anthology, created by Ryan
Murphy and Brad Falchuk, has established itself as one of the queerest
shows on television. Characters of varying sexual orientations and
gender identities occupy (or haunt) the show’s milieus, including a
murder house, an asylum, a freak show, a coven, and a hotel. It also
boasts a host of out actors who inhabit these roles, among them Denis
O’Hare, Zachary Quinto, Sarah Paulson, Matt Bomer, Cheyenne Jackson,
Erika Ervin, and Lady Gaga.
And as the highest-rated show on FX, American Horror Story is
an example of how LGBT diversity can be a valuable asset to networks.
At PaleyFest, an annual festival celebrating television, The Advocate
asked several of the show’s actors to describe how the show succeeds at
being different from others when it comes to LGBT representation and why that matters.
[RELATED: "Why American Horror Story: Hotel Is Booked With Queer Characters"]
Matt Bomer, an out actor, has played both straight roles, such as in Magic Mike, and gay roles, such as in HBO’s The Normal Heart, which was also directed by Ryan Murphy. He first entered the AHS universe in Freak Show, in which he portrayed a sex worker who was murdered after cruising a gay bar. In Hotel he
plays Donovan, a character who is in love with a woman, the Countess
(Lady Gaga). But as evidenced in an early foursome scene, Donovan falls
somewhere in the middle of the Kinsey Scale.
Contemplating the season's unique brand of queerness, Bomer credited
gay cocreator Murphy for not only conjuring characters that span the
sexuality spectrum but also for casting these roles with actors who were
willing to either embrace or step outside of their own identities.
“I think it was so great what Ryan had going on this year, just with
all different kinds of actors of all different walks of life, all
different sexual orientations, playing all different types of roles,” he
said. “Straight, gay, it didn’t really matter. It was sort of just
like, 'You guys are actors. You can play any role no matter what.'"
As fashion designer Will Drake, Cheyenne Jackson also fell under the
Countess’s spell. This may have surprised many audience members, who
witnessed him kissing one of his models, Tristan, portrayed by Finn
Wittrock. But in a moving scene, Drake comes out to his young son — and
also AHS’s millions of viewers — as bisexual, and also explains the stigma many bi people face.
"I'm going to be blunt. Your father is bisexual. People think that
word is dirty, but it's not. It means I like men and women equally,” he
said. “If you're lucky, once in your life you'll find someone who really
understands you."
Before taking on this role, Jackson said, that he had a conversation
with Murphy about the significance of having a bisexual male character
on television — a rarity, even in 2016. The
erasure of bisexual people is a very real issue and can have disastrous
consequences for not only representation, but also health and
well-being of bi people. This ignorance not only plagues mainstream
society, as Murphy discussed with Jackson, but also the gay community.
He advised Jackson to prepare for a backlash.
“There is this whole sect of gay people who are like, ‘No, bi is not a
real thing. It’s just a stopover until you’re fully gay.’ So it was
interesting to embody” that character, Jackson said.
However, as a first-time actor in the anthology series, which often
brings back actors in different roles, Jackson was given some words of
wisdom from an AHS veteran. Sarah Paulson, a fellow out actor,
told him the fans are "unlike any other" and "so committed and so
intense in the best way." Jackson added that the approach to introducing
these characters, along with the storylines they have, may be the
reason American Horror Story and its diversity have been so successful in generating such passion and interest from viewers.
“It portrays every single type of person and every type of background without making fanfare about it. It just is,” he said.
Liz Taylor, a transgender hotel employee played by gay actor Denis
O’Hare, may have been one of the most quietly revolutionary characters
on television in 2016. A plotline involving a touching reunion with her
estranged son established her as the heart of the hotel. But it was her
love scene with a cisgender man, Tristan, that may in fact have made
broadcast TV history; only Transparent and Sense8, both shows streaming on Amazon, have shown this side of trans lives with such respect.
Reflecting on this love scene — “a very, very complicated scene to
play, but I really loved it," O'Hare said — the actor spoke with
reverence for Taylor and how she was written as a three-dimensional
person who was much more than her coming-out story.
“With Liz, for instance, who is transgender, we didn’t belabor the
point. It’s one part of her personality,” said O'Hare, who has
previously portrayed both queer (Freak Show) and straight (Murder House) characters in the American Horror Story universe.
“She doesn’t have to be a saint," he continued. "She can be human —
flawed, imperfect, on a journey, and her journey was a very personal
one. Where she was in the journey of her identity was private in many
ways. We didn’t spend a whole lot of time discussing it. I love that
about it. It’s a very respectful point of view.”
This “respectful point of view” is the result of more than just
casting. O’Hare pointed out that diversity begins on the other side of
the camera.
“Having diverse creators helps,” he said. “The more diversity occurs
behind the scenes — whether that means the showrunners or the producers
or the studio heads — the more you’re gonna be able to have real
diversity in front of the camera. Because the stories we can tell as
people of color, as gay and lesbian people — we have an authority, an
authenticity we can bring to bear [that others can’t].”
Authenticity is also more than just casting. Many shows and films
incorporate LGBT characters, but their storylines are not always the
most flattering or interesting or regularly featured. Even if its LGBT
representation was not factored into the equation, American Horror Story would still be the queerest show on television by virtue of its perspective, aesthetic, and love of camp.
After all, would a show run exclusively by straight people burn a fashion-obsessed witch at the stake and have her last cry be "Balenciaga"? Or have a wooden-legged Jessica Lange sing David Bowie's "Life on Mars" on a freak-show stage? Or choreograph Lange and a group of mental patients to "The Name Game"?
Or cast Lange in general? Perhaps not. Murphy's queer eye allows him to
see what many others in the mainstream cannot, including beauty in the
bizarre.
His eye extends to divas as well. Murphy has established a reputation
of creating roles for actresses like Lange and Kathy Bates, who due to
their age have faced discrimination in other parts of Hollywood. In Hotel he
gave the bisexual singer Lady Gaga a vehicle to showcase her acting
talent, which garnered her a Golden Globe win earlier this year.
It is also important to note that in American Horror Story,
even the straight characters are queer. Each season centers on a group
of individuals who, like LGBT people, are not "normal." Their conflicts
are among themselves, but often they also grapple with greater society,
which oppresses them for their otherness. When Queenie, a character
played by Gabourey Sidibe in Coven who also makes an appearance in Hotel, tells a hotel employee played by Kathy Bates that witches are "born that way," she is not only giving a nod to Gaga. She is acknowledging that the characters in the AHS universe
— be they witches, mental patients, freaks, or vampiric beings — are
reflections of those in the real world who are fighting for their
survival.
If a criticism could be aimed at American Horror Story: Hotel,
it would be for its characters of color, or lack thereof. Angela
Bassett, as the blaxploitation star turned bloodsucker Ramona Royale,
stole many scenes. And there were memorable but brief appearances from
Sidibe and Richard T. Jones. But the male eye candy — Wittrock, Jackson,
Bomer, and Wes Bentley — looked suspiciously similar as white,
broad-shouldered, and blue-eyed men.
In the PaleyFest panel, it was revealed that these similiaries were
intentional. The show’s central character, the Countess, had spent
decades pursuing men who resembled her lost love, Rudolph Valentino.
(The actor who portrays Valentino is Wittrock, who doubled as Tristan.)
Regardless, Murphy has recognized that there is much work that needs
to be done when it comes to diversity in all its forms, and that change
starts with his productions. “I personally can do better,” he said in
recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
In February the TV guru announced that he would launch a foundation
with his Fox production company, Half, in order to address his own
shortcomings.
Murphy also made a resolution: By the end of 2016, half of the director positions on his shows — American Horror Story, Scream Queens, and American Crime Story —
would be filled by women, LGBT people, and people of color. The
foundation also plans to create a database of talent, which can be
shared with other Hollywood power brokers seeking to give a platform to
diverse voices.
“I think Ryan in general is generally about two steps ahead of the
game for anybody,” Bomer concluded. “So hopefully, they’ll follow suit
and just realize that anyone should get the chance to play any role
regardless of who they are. And a part of creating a realistic world is
having characters that are that diverse.”
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