Anyone
watching UPN's Monday night lineup on
November 3 was treated to a most unusual sight: three
of the network's four African-American sitcoms had lesbian characters
or themes.
First,
on The Parkers at 8pm, Kim's (Countess Vaughn) mother
(Mo'Nique) and her friend are mistaken for lesbian moms on a talk
show, and they go along with it in order to win a vacation.
Then
on Girlfriends at 9pm, the partner of William's lesbian
sister Linda (Dawnn Lewis) gives birth to their baby, with openly
bisexual actress/performer Sandra Bernhard guest-starring as the
midwife. At the last minute, William (Reggie B. Hayes) gets cold
feet about signing away his parental rights to allow his sister
to become the baby's second parent because Linda "never follows
anything through," but he finally signs the papers when he
realizes his real concern is not about Linda's parenting abilities,
but that this might be his only chance to be a father.
Then
at 9:30pm on Half & Half, former American Idol
finalist Tamyra Gray guest-stars as a lesbian singer named Zora
who falls for Mona (Rachel True), and Mona struggles with how
to tell her she's straight without hurting her feelings. But Zora
"dumps" Mona before Mona even has a chance to tell her
the truth, leaving Mona depressed that she's been dumped by someone
she wasn't even dating.
There
have been several regular or recurring
lesbian African-American characters on television in the
last few years, but primarily on shows targeted at the
general population (i.e. shows in which most of the cast is white
or racially diverse).
The first African-American lesbians on TV were played by Jenifer
Lewis and Cree Summer on the CBS drama Courthouse in
1995, which only lasted a few months. The
next African-American lesbian didn't appear on TV until five years
later, when Valerie Rae Miller played a lesbian for two seasons
on Fox's sci-fi drama Dark Angel
in 2000.
Since
then, there has been around one new black lesbian character on
TV per year. In 2001, it was LaTanya Richardson as Judge Attallah
"Queenie" Sims on A&E's drama 100 Centre St.
In 2002, HBO's new series The
Wire premiered featuring Det. Kima Greggs (Sonja Sohn)
and her lover Cheryl (Melissa Nicholls King). In January 2004,
the new Showtime series The L Word
will launch with a cast that includes a lesbian museum director
played by Jennifer Beals, as well as several supporting lesbian
and bisexual characters played by African-American actresses like
Lisa Gay Hamilton and Alana Husband.
So
far, however, there has only ever been one regular
or recurring lesbian or bisexual character on an African-American
show: Soul Food's Eva. This
past summer, Showtime's African-American ensemble drama had a
multi-episode storyline involving one of the sisters, Bird (Malinda
Williams), and the attraction between her and her lesbian friend/co-worker
Eva (Terri J. Vaughn), which culminated in an on-screen kiss (which
remains the only lesbian kiss on an African-American show so far).
Bird soon decided she wasn't willing to jeopardize her marriage,
and Eva terminated their friendship when Bird unfairly accused
Eva of passing Bird over for a promotion because she wouldn't
sleep with Eva.
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