ENTERTAINMENT: EW report on Gay TV teens!

It’s terrific that Entertainment Weekly featured on its cover a “Special Report” focusing on “Gay Teens on TV.”

There’s now enough LGBT characters on such shows as Glee, 90210, Gossip Girl, Greek and Pretty Little Liars that it’s got to be more than a passing trend.

Thanks to Glee and its 14.1 million viewers, gay teen characters are now reaching more eyes than ever, as Kurt’s run-in with bullying has dominated the first half of the musical’s second season. It’s also led to the addition of the wildly popular mentor/love interest Blaine.

“They’re kind of like the Joanie and Chachi of our generation,” says Chris Colfer, the actor who won a Golden Globe Award last week for his portrayal of Kurt.

True enough, audiences are pulling for the couple just as they have for such iconically sweet teen pairings of the past.

“When we made the announcement that Kurt was getting a boyfriend, people went bat—-, they were so excited,” Colfer adds. “And when you add Darren, who is incredibly talented, and people are just jumping up and down.

For Darren Criss, who plays Blaine, the real sign of progress is that the pairing has caused no controversy whatsoever. No protests. No outcry. No loss of corporate sponsors. (In fact, General Motors will be sponsoring Glee’s post-Super Bowl extravaganza on Feb. 6)

Even their suggestive yuletide duet caused far less commotion than, say, some of their Glee co-stars posing provocative (and heterosexually) in GQ magazine.

Other comments from the EW story:
Mark Indelicato on his same-sex teen kiss as Justin Suarez on ABC’s Ugly Betty: “When I came to work that day, the crew was like, ‘Let’s make history!’ And 99 percent of the public response was positive.”

Wilson Cruz who played gay teen Rickie Vasquez on ABC’s My So-Called Life in 1994-95 says of his storylne that has Rickie kicked out of the house by his uncle just before Christmas and living in abandoned warehouse with other homeless teens: “It was cathartic in some ways and painful in others. The biggest part was the acknowledgement of our existence and our pain, which we hadn’t seen on television at all before that.”

“I think we’ve now reached the natural progression of what should’ve happened right after My So-Called Life,” Cruz said. “Do we have further to go? Absolutely. But better late than never.”

Dawson’s Creek’s Kevin Williamson, who created the story arc that had football player Jack McPhee (Kerr Smith) coming out and kissing a guy on-screen: “What I was proud of is I felt it was very emotional. And everyone accepted him. In terms of changing the face of the television landscape, I feel like we did what we could in our own little way.”