Soaps take the lead on nuanced storylines about queer life
29 April - 33 mins explicitBefore the mainstreaming of Ellen and the hit show Will and Grace, soaps did their best to bring tenderness to LGBTQ+ storylines. That’s the nature of the form: It gives room for anyone and everyone to be complex, fleshed out, loved and hated all at once.
From supporting roles to legacy characters to complex depictions in their full humanity, from respectability politics to sometimes making missteps, soaps have found ways to evolve their depictions of queer life.
Ryan Phillippe played a gay teen in the 1990s on One Life to Live. Eden Riegel played Bianca, Erica Kane’s gay daughter in the 2000s on All My Children.
Today, progress looks like a villain, according to Days of Our...
Series Episodes
Meet Irna Phillips: The Queen of Daytime
Meet the Chicago woman who birthed the soap opera, first for radio in the 1930s and then TV in the 1950s.
21 mins
8 April Finished
