Rescue Me's Unusual Coming-Out Scene

Before you jump to the conclusion that Rescue Me is a tower of enlightenment, however, let me assure you, it's not: this is the same episode in which the (male) firefighters in Tommy's unit have a contest to see whose erect penis is the longest.

But it's exactly this odd juxtaposition of the best and worst of male behavior that makes Rescue Me so interesting. The worst includes Tommy's efforts to sabotage his wife's new relationship; an older firefighter's embarrassment with his gay son; and the continual treatment of women as sex objects by most of the firefighters.

The best includes a firefighter who, for a time, was secretly writing poetry about 9/11 ("I wish it had been porn," laments his wife upon discovering his secret); a cocky young African American firefighter who inherits a five-year-old daughter he never knew he had and finds he just can't walk away from her; and Tommy's support of Colleen's lesbian relationship.

Like most of the show's storylines, this is not the kind of "lesbian" storyline you see on television very often. When Colleen gives her father the impassioned speech about her girlfriend, it's not about her right to have a girlfriend as much as it is about her right to not have her relationship with her girlfriend held to a different standard than heterosexual relationships.

The assumption underlying her indignance — that of course her relationship deserves equal treatment — and the casual way she imparts the news about her lesbian relationship are rarely seen on TV.

This storyline is unusual for another reason: with the exception of The L Word, TV lesbians are almost always marked firmly as lesbians, and bisexual characters are virtually nonexistent. While Colleen may simply be experimenting (with either lesbianism or heterosexuality), on the surface she appears to be one of the few sexually fluid characters on television.

The word "lesbian" is not used by Colleen herself, only by her parents (although Colleen doesn't rush to refute the label when Tommy uses it, either). Colleen says only that she has a girlfriend, whom she "really, really, really likes." Since she had a boyfriend only a few episodes before (whose name she tattooed on her ass), it's anyone's guess — including probably Colleen's — exactly what her sexual orientation is.

But this is yet another way Rescue Me challenges the status quo and presents an alternative (and arguably more realistic) representation of sexuality. Colleen's apparent lack of desire to label herself and her casual expression of her feelings for her girlfriend reflects the tendency among many teenagers today to see sexuality as more fluid, and less black-and-white, than most adults do (even gay ones).

All of which is likely to make the character of Colleen a challenge to many of the show's two million adult viewers (the highest total in the coveted "adults 18-49" demographic for a new basic cable show), and a breath of fresh air for lesbian and bisexual viewers who are finding themselves nearly invisible on television this season. This may also be a small step towards more TV storylines that include lesbian and bisexual characters who are past the coming-out process.

The character of Colleen is only a supporting one with little screen time each week, so she can't make up for the lack of any new scripted full-time lesbian characters on TV in the 2004-2005 season. But it helps.