Claire and Gretchen on Heroes.

Characters get married, have babies, die or visit alternate universes in order to stop an army of organic/mechanical hybrids that eat thermometers to stay alive–which seems plausible now that I’ve seen it on “Fringe.”

It seems lately that more shows are having characters get their gay on.

Two “straight” characters on two different TV shows have same-sex experiences recently–OK, chaste, harmless experiments. On “Heroes” immortal cheerleader Clare Bennett, played by Hayden Panettiere, shared a kiss with Gretchen, her college roommate. On “Gossip Girl” manipulative antagonist Chuck Bass locked lips with a tertiary character named Josh. Both main characters–Claire and Chuck–were passive participants in these closed-mouth kisses. There was no reciprocal smooching going on.
Claire seemed afraid and Chuck seemed bored–but maybe that’s just Ed Westwick’s poor acting.

Is this same-sex smooching something the gay community should celebrate? It brings homosexuality and bisexuality to the forefront on TV. Or should the community admonish the showrunners for using gay story lines only for shock value to increase ratings?

Read the entire story on Chicagonow.

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