Hollywood fails us once again…
In the new NBC musical theater show Rise, Josh Radnor plays drama teacher Lou Mazzuchelli, based on real-life educator Lou Volpe.
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The only problem? Radnor’s character is a straight family man, while Volpe came out as gay later in life.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, executive producer Jason Katims explained at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour on Tuesday:
“I hope and believe that we carry a lot of [Lou’s] spirit into the show. We took that as inspiration. I felt like I needed to make it my own story. I didn’t want to shy away from sexual orientation and gender… With Lou’s family, there’s a lot of reimagination ├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥ not just if he’s gay or straight, but the family structure. ├óΓé¼┬ª It was important to honor the source material, but to also make it my own so we’d be able to lean into it.”
Not surprisingly, when word broke out, Twitter users were pissed, and accused the show of “straight-washing.”
A special preview for the new series — based off Michael Sokolove’s 2014 book Drama High: The Incredible True Story of a Brilliant Teacher, a Struggling Town, and the Magic of Theater — will air Tuesday, March 13.
See some of the angriest reactions (below):
The straight showrunner Jason Katims decided he needed to make the real life teacher, who was closeted and came out later in life, straight so that HE could connect to the story. GET. FUCKED.
├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥ Laurence “Laura Dern” Barber (@bortlb) January 10, 2018
Hi, @JasonKatims, you don’t need to want to fuck the same people as your protagonist to be able to relate to them. Having a gay male lead on a major network would’ve been huge├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥your erasure of that aspect of the story is a huge fucking shameful letdown.https://t.co/mGQ8cOoydA
— Alicia Lutes (@alicialutes) January 10, 2018
Straight-washing the stories of LGBTQ+ people is nothing new (shout out to @historyisgaypod), but more than disappointing in the year 2018. https://t.co/hpUkYY649m
— LGBT Fans Deserve Better (@LGBTFansDB) January 10, 2018
If you’re a straight writer who can’t write a gay character, maybe the character isn’t the one who needs to change. Gay writers have written straight characters since they were doing it in pictographs. pic.twitter.com/R81Ok1ssyy
— Jeremy C. F🦊x (@JeremyCFox) January 10, 2018
[Image via Rise/YouTube.]
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