More Gays, More Often?

If over-the-air television is broadcasting, cable television increasingly is narrowcasting. Entire cable channels are devoted to news, or to weather, or to sports even, in the case of the Golf Channel, just one sport. There are channels for old movies, for cartoons, for science fiction. In short, in the world of niche marketing, specialty cable networks are the rage.

How many viewers does it take to create a market demand for specialized programming? Apparently its not just numbers that count. Political clout also matters to Hollywood.

Three weeks ago, TV Guides J. Max Robins quoted an insider at the media behemoth Viacom as saying that MTV and Showtime, both Viacom-owned, were giv[ing] real consideration to starting a gay-oriented cable channel. Robins further reported that such networks also are under discussion at HBO, USA Networks, and Rainbow Media, the programming arm of Cablevision, which runs Bravo and AMC.

Lets understand something here. This is not some kind of affirmative-action proposal to bring gays into Hollywood. Theyre there, at every level, already. This is a move to promote the homosexual lifestyle to the public.

The spin from some quarters is predictable. Its about time somebody [went] after that audience with a network, media analyst Tom Wolzien told Robins. Its an important segment of the audience that has traditionally been underserved.

What nonsense. Far from being underserved, gays have been pampered and catered to. Seemingly everywhere you turn you find the gay character, the gay theme, the gay argument inserted, and so often for no reason other than to placate the gay community. As the pundit Camille Paglia put it a few years ago, "Entertainment, media, and the arts are nonstop advertisements for homosexuality these days."

If you seek proof, consider what may happen with one of the most prominent advertisements for homosexuality around, the libidinous NBC sitcom Will & Grace.

Liane Bonin of Entertainment Weekly recently wrote that if Friends ends after this season, one scheduling possibility would be for NBC to move Will & Grace, which currently airs at 9 p.m. Thursdays, to the time slot Friends would vacate - 8 oclock that same evening. Bonin adds that Will & Grace may be a little too edgy for the family-friendly 8 p.m. slot.

I dont know if Bonin suffered a brain cramp, or blanked out under deadline pressure, but the fact remains that the phrase family-friendly 8 p.m. slot is oxymoronic almost everywhere in prime time, especially on NBC. If 8 oclock really were the family hour for NBC, the sex-crazed Friends wouldnt be there nor would the even more sex-crazed Will & Grace be considered as a replacement for it.

But since NBC wants to be thought of as hip and innovative, Will & Grace is the only worthy, logical replacement. At this point, 8 p.m. shows featuring frisky heteros are dull. But Will & Grace? Now that would be a family hour breakthrough, what with its frequent raunchy jokes about promiscuous gay sex. Thats hip, see.

So what might we expect from the proposed gay cable channels? In the online magazine Slate, Michael Joseph Gross looks at PrideVision TV, a nearly-five-month-old Canadian gay cable network. Its programming schedule, Gross suggests, is a useful guide to what our own [gay channels] could look like.

PrideVision, relates Gross, addresses the diversity issue with shows like You Dont Know Dick, a documentary about female-to-male transsexualsAs far as sex goes, PrideVision is fairly soaked in it. Hard-core erotica for both gay men and lesbians is [shown] at midnightand a mens soft-core porn feature at 10:30 p.m. called Steamy Knights is the channels top-rated show. PrideVision also offers porn-dressed-as-documentary; [one] show, called Urinal, explores the policing of washroom sex in Ontario.

Near the close of his story, Gross gets to the heart of the matter: News programs, talk shows, and dramas [on any U.S. gay network] will have to be fearlessly candid about the centrality of sex in much of gay life my emphasis - for gay viewers to take them seriously.

Grosss observation is on target. Think of all the gay men youve heard equate their sexual orientation with who I am or what I am. Then try to remember if youve ever heard a straight man say such a thing. Sex is important to the typical heterosexual, but the difference between important and central is, undeniably, vast. So, too, is the difference between the way heterosexuality has always been discussed on television and how homosexuality will be portrayed on a gay channel.

Much regarding the gay cable network(s) hasnt been determined, but the fact that the concept itself is a news story is another step in homosexualitys long march through the institutions.