Empire

[Emiliano]

Does anyone else watch Empire? I'm really late to it, but its quickly becoming one of my favorite shows. Im curious if anyone has any thoughts about how it portrays gay and lesbians characters / issues.

[East]

https://gayspeak.com/showthread.php?t=35567

I love the show...

...and I don't think a lot of people even realize what a milestone this is with the gay characters...

[Emiliano]

Sorry I hadn't seen your older post. Im so into it haha, I felt the need to gush online. Its a great story and great acting too. Im on the 9th episode now and totally ready to watch Anika get whats coming to her.

I feel like its treatment of gay characters has really gone under the radar. Before finally watching it the other day, I had no idea there was even a gay character in it, much less having his story being one of the driving forces. I also really appreciate seeing a black gay character on tv.

[JohnSomebody]

I am so addicted to this show...I love it!! and cannot wait for the new season to start. I even bought the soundtrack which is also awesome as well.

[East]

This is an example of what people are talking about when they cite racism in the gay community. If this had been a white character...you would have heard about it til you wanted to throw up. Christ...we had those awful "Will and Jack" characters and we heard all about those idiots ,...and Empire is higher rated and has a bigger audience...yet crickets....

I know..when I used to watch Soul Food and would talk about it like I talked about the other shows I watched...I got a blank stare and an occasional "Isn't that a black show?"...uh....NO!!! It is a show...period.

It is pointless to point it out to anyone...they don't care.....I know..I tried. It is almost worse hearing the excuses people make than accepting the silence...

[Emiliano]

I am so addicted to this show...I love it!! and cannot wait for the new season to start. I even bought the soundtrack which is also awesome as well.

I'm really loving the music too. I have one more episode to watch, which I'm going to do once I get home. But I was really into the song Jamal wrote with Lucious At their old house in philly I guess. I'm going nuts waiting to watch the last episode... Then it's like until September I think until season 2.

[Emiliano]

This is an example of what people are talking about when they cite racism in the gay community. If this had been a white character...you would have heard about it til you wanted to throw up. Christ...we had those awful "Will and Jack" characters and we heard all about those idiots ,...and Empire is higher rated and has a bigger audience...yet crickets....

I know..when I used to watch Soul Food and would talk about it like I talked about the other shows I watched...I got a blank stare and an occasional "Isn't that a black show?"...uh....NO!!! It is a show...period.

It is pointless to point it out to anyone...they don't care.....I know..I tried. It is almost worse hearing the excuses people make than accepting the silence...

I feel you on that. Most of the gay characters I see in movies and TV I can't relate to at all. I guess that's why I was so excited by Jamal. But if there's a lack of representation of black and gay characters then there is a straight up absence of Asian ones. And it really is insane how people act like it takes a mostly white cast to tell a story with broad appeal. Once it goes over a certain percentage of non white actors, it's suddenly some kind of special interest thing...

I never heard of Soul Food, but I'll have to look into it.

[Anocxu]

I think its an entertaining translation of the original story...
The cast is most certainly adorable...

[East]

I feel you on that. Most of the gay characters I see in movies and TV I can't relate to at all. I guess that's why I was so excited by Jamal. But if there's a lack of representation of black and gay characters then there is a straight up absence of Asian ones. And it really is insane how people act like it takes a mostly white cast to tell a story with broad appeal. Once it goes over a certain percentage of non white actors, it's suddenly some kind of special interest thing...

I never heard of Soul Food, but I'll have to look into it.

One of my favorite gay characters on TV is George Huang from Law and Order SVU....

He is also played by a gay actor...B.D. Wong. He is pretty much ignored by the gay press....



He was great on OZ too...but he didn't play a gay character then...

Soul Food was a show that was on Showtime back when QAF was on...there was another show called Resurrection BLVD that had an all Latino cast...I liked all three of the shows..but I was the only one I knew that did...

Soul Food doesn't have any gay characters...but I loved the characters they did have..very good writing and acting..

[Anocxu]

One of my favorite gay characters on TV is George Huang from Law and Order SVU....

He is also played by a gay actor...B.D. Wong. He is pretty much ignored by the gay press....



He was great on OZ too...but he didn't play a gay character.

.

He was excellent in Oz.
Without him ... and the nun ..the show would have been absolutely nothing but a clusterf#ck.
They did a great job simplifying those dysfunctional characters..

He does great every time..
No mater what role..

I think he deserves a lifetime achievement award...