A gay character?

[Krazy Karl]

Yeah that only happened cos the boat was sinking. The government painted the refugees out to be evil, proving a point by throwing their children overboard. This was like 3 weeks before the election. 3 weeks after the election, it turned out that the boat was sinking

[Liz]

I wish Corey was gay, and just pretended he liked Martha to hide his true feelings.

Did I mention I love Corey!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No, but I got that impresson.

[Mr_Television]

Home & Away is mainly watched by families. Having a main gay character would cause an uproar of protests and the show would suffer from a loss of ratings. Most of the country is pretty "conservative" when it comes to these things. Producers would never allow anything that might compromise the show like that. Can you imagine how loud people would protest if Hayley ended up with a non-caucasian character? Notice in soaps, black people go with other black people, never with whites. It's a sort of unwritten rule. Same applies to "Gay" characters.

Look at how much pain the show "Buffy" suffered from having Willow being gay. Many protests and so on and so forth.

As long as the film industry stays conservative in Australia, things will stay the same.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That would have to be in the top 3 most uneducated opinions I have ever seen posted on here. Not only have you made many errors in fact, but you've come across sounding homophobic and racist in a way, even if you didn't intend to.

- Viewers wouldn't protest if Hayley ended up with a non-caucasian character because that's called racism and isn't tollerated.

- Home and Away isn't mainly watched by familes, it's main demographic is females between the ages of 6 and 16.

- Neighbours, which is shown in an earlier timeslot has had several gay characters over the years, and there is no evidence to support an effect on ratings.

- There was hardly any uproar to the Willow character in Buffy being gay. There was more uproar from the general public and religious groups for having witchery etc in the show.

- The film industry isn't in any way conservative, if you think otherwise then I'd like to remind you of the success of films like The Sum of Us (Russel Crowe), Head On (Alex Dimitriades) and Walking on Water (Vince Colossimo and Home and Away's very own Nicholas Bishop). The TV industry isn't either, gay men have been shown in positive roles as far back as the 1960's in The Box and Number 96 - more recently, The Secret Life Of Us.

- Home and Away has done a dodgy job of gay characters in the past because as other members have mentioned, they've had gay characters rather than characters who happen to be gay. Coral Drouyn said in the past that she would have liked it to pan out better with the Chris Fletcher storyline, but in their timeslot with a G rating it was hard to go too far into it.

Personally, I think now that 7pm is a PG timeslot and the fact that young viewers can learn more from having a chacter like Robbie or Ric who is just as they are now, but happens to be homosexual, there really is no excuse. So maybe now one day there'll be a more normal representation of life.

[Ryan]

I love the old saying "I'm not homophobic, but I hate gays."

I would prefer it if they were female however.

[stonetheflamincrows]

being gay should be made illegal anyway

[Pierced Musie]

Would you like to explain why it should be made illegal?

[ste]

being gay should be made illegal anyway

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Coming from someone who's favourite shows are Gimme Gimme Gimme (Straight woman and gay guy), Will and Grace (Straight woman and gay guy) and keeping up appearances (Played by a gay woman).

[Mr_Television]

I love the old saying "I'm not homophobic, but I hate gays."

I would prefer it if they were female however.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Funnily enough, I'm gay but it's like my personal motto. All the gay guys I know are high maintenace bitches. NO I DON'T HAVE ISSUES!

[eib]

Home and Away have missed several chances for decent gay storylines but to be honest if all they'll do is skirt around the issue as they have in the past, I'd rather they didn't do it at all.

I don't H&A would ever introduce a character who just happens to be gay since they'd be missing covering the 'coming out' issue they can leak a good month's worth of storyline from. It's a shame though.

[Si-Co]

I love the old saying "I'm not homophobic, but I hate gays."

I would prefer it if they were female however.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Funnily enough, I'm gay but it's like my personal motto. All the gay guys I know are high maintenace bitches. NO I DON'T HAVE ISSUES!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Couldn't agree more!! Most of my male friends are straight for that reason!