A few years ago, Fox Broadcasting Company came up with a brilliant idea to bring the musical show back to the TV format, with a new slant. “Glee,” the show about a high-school glee club in Ohio, was going to be contemporary, exploring all the issues facing youth today. Some of it was a little over the top, but it also broke some new ground.
For our community, it had not only two gay male characters, but also lesbian women, a bi character and they added a trans character. And many of these characters actually dramatized what members of our community go through in coming out, navigating romance, exploring one’s identity and facing bullying, among other issues.
Throughout its so-far-five-year run, what used to be must-watch television has become sometimes-watch television. But get ready to set your DVR once again. Last week, the show took on a subject that most in gay media have either ignored or don’t appreciate the true significance of.
The April 8 episode of “Glee,” entitled “Bash,” highlighted the epidemic of hate crimes currently sweeping New York City. And this will be an ongoing storyline. After becoming a victim of a brutal attack in the city, Kurt, one of the leading characters, says (and I paraphrase here): “I don’t understand this. New York, where there is gay marriage and one of the most liberal cities in America — how can this be happening here?”
One word, backlash. Here’s how the dictionary describes the word “backlash”: a strong and adverse reaction by a large number of people, especially to a social or political development.
In this case, it is a response to the success of the struggle for LGBT equality.
Backlashes happen when a public issue is finding success and is highly visible. Those two points are big time in New York. Those who fear, in this case, LGBT equality, act out of fear and resort to what they believe is their only solution, violence. Those are the facts.
Now, the hard part: how to address the safety of the New York LGBT community during this time, and how to foster a national awareness that this will grow to other cities as our struggle finds more success. This is a call for self-defense classes and town watches, and a call for a discussion of other measures that might be useful.
It’s a discussion that needs to happen and happen now.
Mark Segal, PGN publisher, is the nation’s most-award-winning commentator in LGBT media. He can be reached at [email protected].