The Prime Time Closet: A History of Gays and Lesbians on TV (16 page)

A far more complex character is
Homicide: Life on the Street
’
s
bisexual detective Tim Bayliss (Kyle Secor). Sensitive and intelligent, Bayliss first demonstrates interest in men while investigating the recent murder of a gay man, whose body is found in a gay restaurant’s dumpster (“Closet Cases”). The owner of The Zodiac, Chris Rawls (Peter Gallagher), leads Bayliss and his partner Det. Pembleton (Andre Braugher) to the killer, a hunky hustler named Peter Fields (Brian Van Holt). Fields agrees to confess only if Bayliss admits he finds him attractive (and loves his “nice, hard, ass.”) Bayliss obliges and Fields gives a full confession, claiming he killed the “faggot,” but he himself isn’t gay. (“I am a normal, red-blooded, heterosexual man.”) Bayliss later accepts Rawl’s dinner invitation, which confuses Pembleton, particularly when Bayliss begins to take an interest in Det. Laura Ballard (Callie Thorne) in the next episode (“Sins of the Father”).

Bayliss officially comes out as a bisexual in October of 1998 when he asks Det. Renee Sheppard (Michael Michele) out on a date (“Just an Old Fashion Love Song”). She asks him about the rumor going around the precinct that he is gay. Bayliss admits he slept with a guy recently (a couple of times) and labels himself “bi-curious.” Renee admits she’s bi-curious also and has dated bisexual men.

Another aspect of Bayliss’s private life is introduced on “
Homicide.com
,” in which a murder is staged over the internet. The killer advertises his next murder on
www.inplainsite.com
, Bayliss’s anonymous website that features information on “Buddhist Perspectives on Bisexuality” (Bayliss is a Buddhist). Word spreads that Bayliss is the owner of the website (“Truth Will Out”), which kills his romantic chances with Sergeant Roger Fisk (Michael Ford). Fisk stands Bayliss up for dinner because he’s afraid he’ll be outed (and never promoted) if he associates with him. When Bayliss tries to talk to him about it, Fisk shouts “leave me alone or I’ll kick your faggot ass,” loud enough for everyone in the squad room to hear. From that point on, poor Bayliss considers celibacy.

The issue surrounding Bayliss’s sexuality eventually subsides as the series winds down. In the series finale (“Forgive Us Our Trespasses”), the internet killer, Luke Ryland (Benjamin Busch), is set free on a technicality. Bayliss is angry and quietly leaves his job, but not before he warns the killer he’ll be watching him. At the end of the episode, Ryland turns up dead. In the two-hour follow-up to the series,
Homicide — The Movie
, Bayliss admits to Pembleton he murdered Ryland, but the bi-curious detective’s fate is never revealed.

Unlike most bisexuals in films and on television, Bayliss is neither sexually confused nor a sex maniac who is trying to get it from anyone he or she can all the time. His sexual interest in both men and women is presented, like heterosexuality and, more recently, homosexuality, as quite natural and normal. Turning Bayliss into a murderer in the end was no doubt unsettling for the show’s devoted fans. Fortunately, his actions are consistent with a character who was clearly reacting, albeit irrationally, to a faulty legal system, rather than being driven by some sort of oedipal problem or repressed sexual rage.

Most regular and recurring gay characters on law and order dramas still appear in supporting roles as friends, family members, co-workers, and informants. For example,
The Profiler’s
Violent Crimes Task Force team includes a top-notch gay computer hacker, George Fraley (Peter Frechette).
Hollywood Beat’s
detectives, Nick McCarren (Jack Scalia) and Jack Rado (Jay Acavone), hang out at the Frolic Room, a cocktail lounge owned by a very big gay man named George Grinsky (ex-pro football player John Matuszak). And Chris Cagney has another shoulder to cry on when her handsome gay neighbor, Tony Stantinopolis (Barry Sattels), moves in across the hall (“Rights of Passage”).

The issue hits closer to home for
The Division’s
Inspector Jinny Exstead (Nancy McKeon), who supports her gay brother, a fellow police officer, when he comes out of the closet (“Don’t Ask”). In “Knockout,” detective
Nash Bridges
(Don Johnson) not only finds out his sister Stacy (Angela Dohrmann) is a lesbian, but she is dating his ex-girlfriend. But it’s not an issue for Nash who is so comfortable in his own sexuality that he and his partner, Joe (Cheech Marin), pose as a gay couple to retrieve a stolen Super Bowl ring for a gay ex-pro football player (“The Counterfeiters”).

Nash and Joe’s masquerade continued in the 1998
–
1999 season when the duo open a gay detective agency. Their first client is a Cher impersonator (“Imposters”) who hires them to retrieve her wigs, stolen by her understudy. In a later episode (“Girl Trouble”), Joe finds himself in an embarrassing situation when he starts corresponding with a mystery woman over the internet. His cyber gal turns out to be none other than Pepe (Patrick Fischler), the agency’s gay office manager, who thinks Nash and Joe have been a couple for 20 years. Luckily, Nash manages to rescue Joe without hurting Pepe’s feelings.

While there have been regular and recurring lesbian characters on Steven Bochco’s numerous series, with the exception of
Hooperman,
most gay male characters on his shows are relegated to the role of the boss’s faithful assistant.
Cop Rock’s
corrupt mayor, Louise Plank (Barbara Bosson), had the loyal Ray Rodbart (Jeffrey Allan Chandler) at her side.
Murder One’s
law offices were managed by the efficient Louis Heinsberger (John Fleck).

And then there’s
N.Y.P.D. Blue’s
John Irvin (Bill Brotchup), the embodiment of the limited perception some heterosexuals have of gay men.
⁴⁰
Efficient, emotional, and fey to the point of being a little frail, Irvin’s involvement in story lines is limited. Most of his screen time is spent sitting behind his desk, like a spectator, silently observing the action. Until recently, we knew very little about his personal life, though in one early episode (“The Bank Dick”), he is dating a police officer, Paul Caputo (Paul D’Ambrosio). The couple, who are never shown together on screen, are gay-bashed by two kids paid off by cops in Paul’s precinct. Irvin elicits help from Det. Simone (Jimmy Smits), who counsels the closeted Paul and warns the two homophobic cops from Paul’s precinct to lay off.

On occasion, Irvin is actually involved in a story line. He tries to reach out to his friend and fellow PAA, Dolores Mayo (Lola Glaudini), when she gets involved in prostitution and drugs (“What’s Up Chuck?”). When Dolores turns up dead (“Voir Dire This”), Irvin feels guilty he wasn’t able to help. He has subsequent misgivings about not stopping her father, Jimmy Mayo (Bob Glaudini), from avenging her death by gunning down Assistant District Attorney Sylvia Costas, a.k.a. Mrs. Andy Sipowicz (Sharon Lawrence).

In “Welcome to New York,” Irvin offers his “expertise” on gay relationships to help the detectives solve the murder of a man involved in a gay love triangle. In the episode’s final scene, Irvin offers his emotional support to the victim’s ex-lover, a sweet southerner named Blake (Misha Collins):

Not even a good actor like Brotchup can make a bizarre speech like this work. Irvin talks about himself, Blake, and other gay men who move to New York as if they were visitors from another planet. While one can appreciate Irvin’s attempt to counsel this gay man whose ex-lover was just murdered by his current lover, his monologue only confirms the series’s limited perception of gay men. Furthermore, we have no idea what Blake is thinking because he just silently listens and then, at the end, politely thanks him.

Irvin’s character would be more palatable if there was some balance in terms of the other gay male characters on the show. Over the years,
N.Y.P.D. Blue’s
roster of gay (and gay-related) victims and killers have included a Truman Capote look-alike whose Oscar (for Best Screenplay) is pinched by a hustler (“Oscar, Meyer, Wiener”); a crackhead transvestite (“Jumpin’ Jack Fleishman”); a New York University professor who picks up hustlers and is killed by a mentally ill student (“Head Case”); and, as discussed above, a stiffed hustler who severs part of a john’s johnson (“Thumb Enchanted Evening”).

The writers also like to add a little touch of decadence to cases by having the detectives conduct their investigation in a gay bar (on drag night in “Don We Now Our Gay Apparel”). In “The Man With Two Right Shoes,” a gay out-of-towner is stabbed and castrated by a hustler because the john kissed him. The detectives’ investigation leads them, in Sipowicz’s words, to a “fairy bar” frequented by the victim. The scene in which the detectives apprehend the suspect in the bar goes to great lengths to emphasize Sipowicz’s hostility and disgust for what he sees (like the bartenders’ bare buttocks, which no doubt is an inside joke on the series’s more infamous behind-barings). While Sipowicz would have used words like “fairy bar,” “queer moron,” and “fruits,” in the show’s first few seasons, you’d think he would have grown more tolerant over the years — at least enough to think twice before using derogatory terms. Even GLAAD, which applauded the series for featuring a gay male character in a recurring (and now regular) role, believed “work still needs to be done to avoid gratuitous language and inconsistencies in characterizations when depicting gay themes.”
⁴²

Another example involves Sipowicz, now a single father, trying to find a last-minute babysitter for his son Theo (“Writing Wrongs”). Irvin offers to sit, but Sipowicz is reluctant to leave Theo alone with a gay guy. His partner, Danny Sorenson (Rick Schroeder), tells him he is being irrational and explains Irvin is gay, not a pedophile. “I would trust my life with him,” Sorenson says. Sipowicz asks him to sit with Theo and he becomes his regular babysitter.

In the context of Sipowicz’s character, the situation makes little sense. Even though the child involved is his own son, an experienced, street smart detective like Sipowicz knows the difference between a homosexual and a pedophile. He has also known Irvin for several years. The situation confirms there is no place in the world of
N.Y.P.D. Blue
for a gay man beyond fulfilling his role as the “gay other.” Instead of having any semblance of a personal life (or even a relationship), Irvin can only do the things all gay men are good at, like babysitting and cutting hair (which he graciously does again for Sipowicz before his big date).
⁴³

The transgender community doesn’t fare much better on
N.Y.P.D. Blue.
Transvestites and transsexuals, usually hookers, are either witnesses to or victims of crimes. In “Unembraceable You,” two prostitutes, Angela (Alec Mapa) and Peaches (Jazzmun), who Det. Russell knew from her days as a vice cop, prove to be helpful witnesses to a homicide. Both characters return later that season (“I Love Lucy”) when Angela is beaten up by her low-life boyfriend, Jimmy (Clifton Gonzalez-Gonzalez). Jimmy later kills her because she refused to have a risky sex-change operation. In an equally disturbing episode (“A Hole in Juan”), a crack addict leaves her baby for four days with a transsexual named Inez (Erik Dellums). Inez in turn leaves the baby alone for a few hours. When she returns, the infant is dead, so she puts the body in a dumpster.

Surprisingly, producer Steven Bochco’s previous police drama,
Hill Street Blues,
was less sensationalistic when it came to gay characters and issues. Like the 12th Precinct, Hill Street Station also had to contend with the usual murderers, thieves, and gang-related crime. Gay characters on the whole were treated more sympathetically than on
N.Y.P.D. Blue,
sometimes to the point of being condescending. In the opening of the third season (“Trial By Fury”), undercover detective Michael Belker (Bruce Weitz) befriends a gay male prostitute named Eddie Gregg (Charles Levin), who affectionately refers to Belker as “Mick.” Eddie is sad-eyed, childlike, and very needy. He is the perfect counterpart for Belker, who has a gruff exterior but is a softie deep down.

Belker also becomes Eddie’s defender and protector. When Det. LaRue (Kiel Martin) begins imitating Eddie, Belker tells him off. “You make me sick. Just because a guy is different. What the hell is it to you?” he shouts. “He’s just a poor, scared guy trying to get through the day.” In “Phantom of the Hill,” Eddie becomes Belker’s snitch and is forced to inform on a lover involved in a homicide. Belker feels disappointed and betrayed when Eddie lets his emotions get the best of him and almost prevents the police from capturing the killer. Before Eddie leaves town, he thanks the detective for being his friend and gives him a kiss on the cheek.

Three years later (“Slum Enchanted Evening”), Belker runs into Eddie, who tells him he has “it” (in 1986, “it” meant AIDS). Once again, Belker plays good Samaritan and buys him ice cream. He later returns to his tenement with groceries, only to find out Eddie has died. To the series’s credit, the Eddie-Belker story line broke new ground in exploring the relationship between a straight and a gay man. What was disappointing is that the producers fell into the trap of characterizing an adult gay man as a pathetic mess. As a result, Belker’s interest in Eddie comes across as slightly patronizing.

Law and order dramas have also featured lesbian and bisexual lawyers and judges. In November of 1990,
L.A. Law
introduced a bisexual attorney (she preferred the term “flexible”) named C.J. Lamb (Amanda Donohoe). In a highly controversial episode (“He’s a Crowd”), C.J. plants a kiss on one of her colleagues, Abby (Michele Green).
The Hollywood Reporter
characterized “what might be the first lesbian kiss on network television as rather chaste.”
⁴⁴
Some of the advertisers pulled their ads, but they were quickly replaced with no financial loss to NBC.
⁴⁵
The episode indeed broke new ground, though by today’s standards the lip lock between Abby and C.J. would barely register on the Kinsey scale. (And, just for the record, if a bisexual woman kisses a heterosexual woman, is it really a “lesbian” kiss?)

C.J. may have paved the way for television’s first lesbian African-American judge. On the short-lived
Courthouse,
Jenifer Lewis plays Rosetta Reed, a single mother who left her husband to live with her female lover Danny (Cree Summers). Danny is upset that Rosetta is afraid to show any public affection in front of her colleagues (“Order on the Court”), though the judge claims she doesn’t want to give up everything she worked for so they can walk down the hallway holding hands. The issue creates tension in their relationship, particularly when Rosetta asks Danny to go to a hotel when her parents come to visit (“Fair-Weathered Friends”). The first African-American lesbian couple to be regularly featured on a television series, Rosetta and Danny’s relationship was never given the chance to develop because CBS closed
Courthouse
’s doors after only nine episodes.

Following in Rosetta’s footsteps is
100 Centre Street
’
s
lesbian Judge Atallah Sims (La Tanya Richardson). Known as “Atallah-the-Hun,” the feisty Judge Sims is outed by the press (“The Bug”) when she defies the mayor to help a fellow judge, Joe Rifkin (Alan Arkin). As with
Courthouse, 100 Centre Street
explores the challenges faced by women and racial minorities in traditional male power positions, particularly when their personal lives become front page news.