Behind the Lesbian Story Line on "Grey's Anatomy"

This spring, ABC's Grey's Anatomy introduced a lesbian story line with a romance between the confident and sexually voracious Dr. Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) and the professionally ambitious yet personally restrained Dr. Erica Hahn (Brooke Smith).

The story line offered both the drama Grey's is known for and — despite some marginally exploitative threesome talk — a truthfulness network television has rarely achieved when it comes to lesbian relationships. For Callie and Erica, the season ended with a kiss, and what could be the beginning of a passionate romance.

Photo credit: Randy Holmes/ABC

With that kiss, Callie and Erica became the only regular lesbian/bisexual female characters currently on network television. This is also the first time that two regular characters on a network show have begun a lesbian romance, as opposed to one becoming involved with a new lesbian character introduced expressly for that relationship.

To prepare for the story line, which will continue next season, Grey's consulted with GLAAD, which worked with the series' writers on a previous story line about a transgender character with breast cancer. GLAAD invited Nikki Weiss, an out producer and manager also known for her appearance on Oprah, and Trish Doolan, an out writer, director and actor best known for her film April's Shower, to participate in workshop sessions with the writers and actors. Weiss and Doolan spoke to AfterEllen.com about what it was like to work on Grey's and what they thought of the story line on-screen.

Nikki Weiss (left) and Trish Doolan

AfterEllen.com: When did the people from Grey's approach you about doing this story line?
Nikki Weiss: GLAAD actually contacted me in March and said, "The Grey's writers really want to write this story line and ensure that they understand the emotional journey of discovering that you're a lesbian — or at least in love with another woman — when you're an adult." So I said, "Fantastic! I'd be happy to help."

AE: Is this something that either of you have done before, consulting on another writer's stories and characters?
Trish Doolan: Well, I'm a writer; I actually write. So a lot of times people will just call me to read their scripts. But not to the extent that this was — coming in for a formal meeting and sitting around with all of the writers. It was really very well-done … I just thought their need to know and want to be truthful, and everything like that — it was just really professional.

NW: We actually sat first with the actresses in a room with GLAAD as well — they were present at all of the meetings … to make sure it was accurate and fair and inclusive. And first we met with the actresses and executive producer … and that was like an hour and a half meeting. And then we were into the writers' room with the entire writing staff and a stenographer [laughs], just to make sure they got everything. And they were really intense on understanding and telling the story line from a source of truth.

AE: What was it like to work with the writers and the actresses?
NW: I was just really impressed that they wanted to tell this story so honestly. And they really wanted to understand the relationship and the dynamic — falling in love with somebody of the same gender. And their questions were really thought out. And the writers were just really invested in that, and so were the actresses, actually. They had a lot of great questions.

Brooke Smith (left) and Sara Ramirez

Photo credit: Randy Holmes/ABC

AE: What kinds of questions were they asking you?
NW: They asked us how do we identify ourselves: Are we lesbians or did we just fall in love with another woman? They specifically asked things like, "When was the first time you were conscious of an attraction to another woman?" "Did you ever sleep with a man to prove to yourself that you weren't gay?"

So they really just wanted to understand the spectrum. "When was the first moment you knew you were a lesbian, or identified with that? Does it matter?" Specific fears about coming out. How your friends reacted to it.

TD: And how everyone is now. Did you lose any people in your life, like friends, family, things like that. And then about our relationship now, and relationships that we've been in, and whether they ended because of someone couldn't handle being gay, or was it a normal breakup as other relationships break up. …

They were really wanting to be truthful to the two characters they're focusing on in the woman-woman relationship … because I think what they were going for is one of the characters on their show, maybe it's not that she's necessarily gay, but she falls in love with this person. … And that's actually what was one of my stories in the past. A woman I was with never was with another woman again. She just said she fell in love with me. And for her it wasn't a gender thing; it was just about a person. And that's something that they were really interested in for their story line.

NW: And I think that they didn't want to stereotype anything, either, and write from a place where they didn't understand it. I think that sexuality is so fluid that they wanted to understand that point of view as well, of being attracted to a person and telling that honestly, because there would be a fear in that too, if you own up to, wow, I'm attracted to that person, regardless of their gender.