Look, obviously Michelle and ...
Question: Look, obviously Michelle and her "if they want a show about gays, then let them have their own show" comments are misguided. But in a (very) roundabout way, she makes an interesting point about a lack of diversity in television. The most recent studies estimate that about four percent of Americans are gay. That's probably close to their representation on TV, I'd guess. But there are about 60 million Pentecostals in America. How many of those are represented on television? There are seven or eight million Mormons in the United States, and outside of the wacky splinter sect in
Big Love, I'm confident there are no Mormon characters on network television shows. Heck, if you're not watching
King of the Hill or
Friday Night Lights, you'd probably assume that religion in America, particularly by more conservative adherents, is as dead as belief in Zeus, when actually about half of Americans go to church each week. With all the attempts at diversifying race, national origin and sexual orientation on TV, where's the attempt at a little religious diversity? Where's the sympathetic religious character who, gulp, actually has some qualms about homosexual behavior that aren't smoothed over in the course of one very special episode?
Answer: Maybe it's worth noting that the most recent episode of
Men in Trees featured a new character, a minister who had the misfortune of falling for Sarah, the former prostitute, and who ran away from the awkward situation. (I'm not convinced that story is over just yet.) Very valid arguments here, and I would like nothing better than for more shows to incorporate faith into the text of a show the way
Friday Night Lights has done. Much as I live for the day when gay characters on TV are shown as completely unremarkable, just like anyone else, so should characters be able to be portrayed as religious (by the way, gays go to church, too) without being seen as either too extreme or any different from anyone else. Diversity rocks.
