We've been telling the wrong story about queer people in Hollywood
LOS ANGELES — In the spring of 2012, as President Barack Obama sought reelection to the White House, his right-hand man, Joe Biden, appeared with moderator David Gregory on "Meet the Press." To the surprise of anyone familiar with the rhythms of the Sunday morning talk show — including, perhaps, Biden himself — the vice president made news, endorsing same-sex marriage when his own administration had not.
In doing so, he cited a popular sitcom as the catalyst.
"When things really began to change is when the social culture changes," Biden said. "I think 'Will & Grace' probably did more to educate the American public than almost anything anybody's ever done so far." Three days later, in an interview with ABC News, a reluctant Obama made his own endorsement, and at the Democratic National Convention that summer the party adopted marriage equality as a plank in its platform for the first time.
No one familiar with the history of LGBTQ+ representation in American film and television can doubt the milestone status of David Kohan and Max Mutchnick's farce about a gay man (Eric McCormack) and his best friend (Debra Messing) navigating life in turn-of-the-millennium New York. Premiering in the fall of 1998, just months after the pioneering "Ellen" "Will & Grace" joined the vaunted "must-see TV" bloc that had launched such beloved comedies as "The Cosby Show," "Cheers," "Seinfeld" and and attracted, at its early 2000s peak, an average of 17.3 million viewers per episode.
