A gay character?

[ter06]

Emmerdale is on at 7pm here and lesbian storylines are commonplace and nobody takes anynotice when two women kiss because its nothing new. They can get away with far more than Home and Away which is in the same timeslot in Australia. Its ridiculous why H&A cant be more daring especially as a lot of the eps are PG now anyway

[Traceve]

Emmerdale is on at 7pm here and lesbian storylines are commonplace and nobody takes anynotice when two women kiss because its nothing new. They can get away with far more than Home and Away which is in the same timeslot in Australia. Its ridiculous why H&A cant be more daring especially as a lot of the eps are PG now anyway

Its on at 7pm here too. They have always been G untill a few years ago..I think..They should make a special ep rated M that could explain the storylines or something better

[jonjo]

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.

Excuse me! But in Buffy, Willow been gay was the best thing they did and it didnt suffer at all it actuallt got more ratings cos people could relate to it! ii If Hayley went out with a black chactor if people complained then that is sick.There is too much predjudice in the world and i cant believe where you come from people are like that!

[joey-lee]

We're not - no one would care.

[alexx]

They're not - that was a silly thing to say whoever said it. Stephanie went out with Liam, and she was 'black' and that was back in 97 - I honestly don’t think anyone would give a **** about it.

However, Aussies are still quite innocent compared to the rest of the world, we have definitely matured and got a bit daring, but H&A has always had something very conservatively moral about it. Having said that I disagree people would stop watching due to there being a gay character; it would probably increase the ratings... But at the same time, they know guys and girls watch the show, (young guys and girls) and they probably don’t want to give messages that being gay is another option if your straight - I know that sounds quite retarded, but they probably don’t want to encourage young guys and girls to question their sexuality at a young age – they may feel like they couldn’t tackle it without stuffing the show up and confusing young kids.

[Guest]

Hey a question how come there are never any blacks on Home and Away well expect for Stephanie I just dont get It most shows have a different culture on them

[ste]

We don't write the show, we only watch it.

[katya]

Surely that's another thread altogether?

[Foxy]

being gay is another option if your straight - I know that sounds quite retarded

That's piffle. Being gay isn't "another option" - it's not a case of choosing. You either are, or you're not. The ability to colour your hair is an option - your sexuality isn't.

And please refrain from using the word "retarded" in future - it is very offensive.

And I don't think it would in any way stuff up young viewers. First off, they don't have to have a "coming terms with sexuality" storyline, they could introduce a character that's already gay. And secondly, when you considering how many straight people there are in the bay (i.e. all of them) I hardly one gay character is going to cause an uproar.

[ste]

^ I don't think Alexx was saying any of that was his opinion.

He was merely saying that, rightly or wrongly, those are the reasons (or at least factors contributing to the reasons) why Australian TV isn't accurately portraying and respresnting gay society in their programmes.

In fact, by saying "that sounds quite retarded", he was saying he disagrees with it.