Gay vampires on TV
Gay vampires appearing on television has come a long way since The Lair premiered in 2007. Back then I was incredibly excited to see gay vampires on the small screen. The big screen had only produced one film which has only been made available on DVD in France, Scab. Sure gay vampires are a minority within a minority, but all the more reason to be seen. As two more seasons of The Lair rolled out, True Blood premiered along side the recent surge in vampire popularity thanks to Twilight. True Blood has shown that gay vampires can exist among the straight vampire population. And due to the rise in vampires on screens of late, vampires are everywhere but gay vampires are still a sidelined minority or entirely invisible.
The last episode of The Lair ended with a cliff hanger which has not been resolved, and still no word from HereTV on a fourth season. Commissioning another season might be a tough argument these days. The Lair was once cutting edge, but with vampires all over screens and the annoying slurs directed at Twilight for being “so gay”, maybe they are too mainstream. And yet where are the gay vampires? Thursday Vampire Diaries will return, and a gay character will be added, but we don’t know if this gay character will be a vampire, human or werewolf (hopefully not). Then again what will one gay character do on the series? Let’s hope one gay vampire will arrive and take a liking with Jeremy, newly turned. Or a gay vampire couple could move to town, old friends of either Stefan or Damon.
(Spoiler alert for this paragraph) This season of True Blood has been slightly disappointing. The King of Mississippi is grieving and going a little mad, not to mention that he’s been evil for quite some time. We only recently saw the gay hustler he picked up, Michael Steger, but that didn’t end well. Except there are rumors Steger might return to the role on a recurring basis in season 4, which could mean the hustler was turned. Still these are minor roles.
The Gates has rolled out ten episodes but obviously having a gay vampire would be too much for the trashy ABC drama. Again though, I worry if a gay character was added to the show, it might be another werewolf. British series Being Human at least had a gay vampire, and considering the shorter season his one episode was more than Vampire Diaries or The Gates has done. Oh, and again with the werewolves, but Being Human’s werewolf is played by openly gay actor Russell Tovey.
So overall, the state of gay vampires on television is sadly lacking. Come on tv producers, including HereTV, get with the program and give us some gay vampires in our tv programs.
Mentioned in this article:
Scab
The Lair (tla) or The Lair (amazon.com)
The Vampire Diaries (amazon.com)
Being Human: Season Two (amazon.com) or one Being Human, Series 2 on iTunes