Censorship of LGBT television

Billy Crystal, beloved Hollywood A-lister, made rather controversial and startling comments at the Television Critics Association last Sunday.  It seems that for Crystal, an actor who helped break down barriers for gay characters on television decades ago, can still to this day be shocked and quite frankly repulsed by LGBT life on screen.

Billy Crystal at the Television Critics Association.

When asked about his role on the ‘70s sitcom Soap, where he played one of the first gay characters on network TV, he stated, “it was awkward and it was tough” and how the audience would “laugh nervously”. When some of the most watch American dramas of last year (Modern Family, American Horror Story) prominently feature gay characters and when the Oscars where hosted by an out gay women (Ellen DeGeneres) to then be past on this year to out gay man (Neil Patrick Harris), is it important to remember when gay characters affection was met with nervous laughter.

However, Crystal then went on to suggest that perhaps the progress in LGBT content on TV, had gone too far, stating “I’ve seen some stuff recently on TV in different kinds of shows where the language or the explicit sex is really you know, sometimes I get it, and sometimes I just feel like, ‘Ah, that’s too much for me.”

Why does it seem here that Crystal, and I’m sure other audience members, are uncomfortable with the presence of sexual gay scenes? Obviously, plenty has changed in the more than 40 years after Soap but progress is worryingly slow.

So this makes me ask, is censorship to blame for the slow progress?

In America the Federal Communications Commission, which has regulated broadcast television since 1934, has always had unclear guidelines, defining indecency as “patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium and [describing] sexual or excretory activities and organs.” According to the FCC, indecency is not appropriate until later in the evening, between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

But these days — after a series of lawsuits created, by such discrepancies such as M.I.A’s middle finger at the 2012 Super Bowl, the FCC has largely stopped punishing indecency violations: instead punishing obscenity, defined as something being ‘offensively sexual with no redeeming artistic qualities.’

The FCC is not only the reason for restricted content with many television networks now imposing their own ‘indecency’ standards. Similar to the film industry, the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters adopted a code of standards in 1952 stating “Such subjects as violence and sex shall be presented without undue emphasis and only as required by plot development or character delineation.”

But both theses codes seem shockingly hypocritical, to say straight characters love lives warrant visible sexual acts on screen whereas homosexual character's sex lives are seen as inappropriate.

All in the family was one of the first programs in the US pushing boundaries with sex and sexuality. But with this came pressure on the FCC, leading to the adoption of the 7 p.m to 9p.m being ‘exclusively family-friendly content’ and indecent content (violence and sex) being shown later. However this meant ABC executives worried they would have to move popular shows to later slots, law suits followed until the family viewing hour was abandoned, just in time for Billy Crystal to debut in Soap. However even these minor gay characters where enough to cause even more lawsuits to drag on through the eighties, resulting in more individual network standards.

In the nineties things weren't much better, Ellen had its main character and its leading actress come out at the same time, leading to warnings having to be put in before the show started, addressing its 'homosexual content' and the show didn't even have any sexual scenes other than a kiss! This is despite the fact that in the nineties America was seeing nudity and straight sex regularly, yet the first male gay kiss wasn't until 2000 in teen drama Dawson's Creek. 

Dawson's Creek showing the first male kiss on primetime TV.

So it is clear there are no restrictions specified for homosexuality content under broadcast laws, yet LGBT content has continually been under pressure by conservative audiences, leading a majority of desexualised gay characters.  It is clear that today gay sex on screen is no longer the threat it once was. However seeing gay sex on TV is still seen by a few as being more shocking than any form of straight sex and the majority of television programs live up to this notion. If homosexuality is really seen as equal, with marriage equality for example, then why are television makers still treating homosexuals differently? Because in doing so people, like Billy Crystal, are still treating and thinking of homosexuality as different and ultimately a taboo. 

Links for todays Blog below!

• Billy Crystal and Gay Sex Scenes
• Gay Sex in your Living Room
• FCC - Obscenity,indecency and profanity.