Luke and Noah, sitting in a tree

[alexdraven]

So it seems fans of CBS soap opera "As the World Turns" are getting up in arms because there's not enough gay kissing on their screens - and all power to them!

(My TV show of choice at the moment is Torchwood, which certainly doesn't stint on the man-on-man lip-locking, but even in a more mainstream show, it does seem somewhat strange that 'As The World Turns' is backing away from showing Luke and Noah kissing in the same way any of the heterosexual couples on the show are shown, in the context of writing them into a long term gay relationship.)

It also seems a little odd to my English eyes that it's still an issue for the makers of US TV, and in that context I guess maybe As the World Turns should get props for the existence of the storyline, but the last time I can remember a flurry of protest about gay kissing on tv in the UK was about six years back, when complaints about a gay screen kiss in a mainstream, early-evening soap/drama, broadcast on a commercial channel, were turned down by the regulators on the - extremely sane - grounds that the gender of the people kissing on screen has nothing to do with how appropriate or not it is to air the kiss when kids can be assumed to be watching.

As it should be!

We're not talking about that rimming scene from the first episode of Queer as Folk (although we can pause while we all think about it ...) we're talking about someone kissing their boyfriend. I'm all in favour of people kissing their boyfriends, or girlfriends, regardless of their genders. Kissing is fabulous! Bring on the kissing!

In fact, lets have a little first-kiss action right here, from the boys I wrote about in Favor:

***

"Oh, yeah," Micky breathed, moving in for another kiss. This was really, really good. Better than anything Micky had expected, the hot touches and cold air combining to blow his mind, keeping him constantly aware that they were outside

Gradually Rhys got braver, tilting that pointed chin and pushing a little for control of the kiss, bringing hands up to slide under Micky's coat, around his waist, down to rest on his bum. Micky, too, was exploring, stroking Rhys' neck, working his fingers up into the hair at the bottom of Rhys' skull, pressing fingertips into the sensitive hollows there, sliding his tongue against Rhys', feeling the fangs pressing into his own lips, while they breathed through each others' mouths. Micky's heart was pounding, elation rising up in his chest to steal his air, making his head spin, and somehow it seemed natural for their kisses to slow a little, and when they pulled apart, Micky realized he was laughing, chuckles bubbling up like champagne.

"What?" Rhys' smile was fond, and streaked with Micky's lipstick.

"Man, think about it. I'm making out with a vampire, in a churchyard, on Halloween! That's got to be, like, ten goth points, right?"

Comments

[claire-wain.livejournal.com]

*giggles at goth points*

There was kissing in Ashes to Ashes last night, too. I still can't decide whether it handled the gay scene of the early 80s sensitively or not (too rushed to be properly thoughtful, but some nice points about sexuality generally), but the kissing was beautifully done and extremely appropriate. :)

[manna]

There should be an original slash kissing challenge! It would be fun, and it's a good challenge theme because it manages to be both specific and open.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

It just seems silly. Why have a gay couple - or any couple - that don't kiss? I mean, it's alien. It's damn rare for a couple not to kiss and the fact that every other couple on the soap does kiss apparently on a regular basis (and have sex in lifts), well, it stands out surely. It's just daft. If you're going to have a gay couple the haters are going to loathe you ANYWAY. Making the gay couple vestal virgins who amuse themselves by holding hands to pander to them becomes rather irrelevent.

And I like that the ITC was almost quite frustrated about slapping the complainers about the Bill kiss scene.