Sexual Diversity on Soaps: Is It Getting Better?

Y&R surprised the hell out of me this week when it actually acknowledged the existence of gay people. Y&R, as far as I can remember, has never had a gay character -- yet, on Friday's episode, cute lawyer Rafe Torres came out to Colleen after Lily tried setting them up on the fly, completely unaware of Rafe's sexual orientation.

And why wouldn't she be? Soaps are notoriously awful when it comes to LGBTQ visibility (though it's worth noting that primetime network TV is really no better... and perhaps worse). This is especially bothersome since soaps focus so heavily on romantic relationships and potentially have the opportunity to address sexual orientation differences all the freaking time. Yet, heteronormativity is so ingrained in the storylines that soaps frequently run out of unique man-woman pairings and end up recycling the same couplings over and over. Which can be tiresome, offensive, and, in my opinion, an incessant detriment to the romantic storylines.

Rafe on Y&R might be just one sign that things are getting better, however. On As the World Turns, Luke Snyder and Noah Mayer have been a couple on-and-off since 2007. Bianca Montgomery on All My Children came out in 2000, has had multiple relationships (including one with transitioning MtF transwoman Zoe), and recently married her girlfriend Reese during February sweeps. The first ever gay teenager on a soap was Billy Douglas on One Life to Live, played by Ryan Phillippe back in 1992-93. These were all major LGBTQ strides for network television (albeit not without criticism and controversy) that came exclusively from the soaps community.

Yet, Y&R, which has been #1 in soaps ratings since the early 90s, has failed to go there -- until now.

When Rafe Torres was first introduced in December, it was as a marginal, filler character at best, a lawyer brought on to handle cases Michael Baldwin couldn't take on (there are a crap-load of legal issues in Genoa City, after all). Rafe was shown so sporadically and in such different contexts (first handling Ana's child custody issues, then Adam's criminal charges) it was rather easy to forget his name or that he was supposedly an old pal of Billy Abbott's. A few weeks ago, however, it was slipped in that Rafe was the nephew of Victor's house manager Estella, which made me think for the first time he might be sticking around. And then on Friday came the reveal about this sexual orientation.

This doesn't necessarily guarantee that Rafe will become a major character -- Y&R has been so neglectful of LGBTQ visibility, it's hard for me to trust them on this point. Still, the fact that Y&R willingly went there, when they never have before, might mean something. Could it indicate that another character, a major one, will be exploring their sexuality in a new way?

I have to admit, this is where my mind goes... if Rafe is going to have a love interest, who will it be? I think the best choice might be Daniel Romalotti, in which case I hope they go the route of bisexuality, rather than erasing/ignoring the heterosexual history of the Daniel character. Either way, this could be interesting. But I guess we will see.