Are there enough Gay Male Characters in our leading soaps? Do you feel there are enough? Do you identify with them.

Anthony Cotton, Corrie' s Sean Tully has spoken today of the online abuse he receives due to his character - is this justified?

I don't care, it makes no difference to me if they are gay, straight or other. being a good character and having strong storylines is more important to me.

some of the abuse and comments anyone remotely well known get on twitter is disgusting

I don't like Sean or Cotton for that matter but online abuse is unacceptable.

Sure it's not just about his character.

Charlie Condou is a loss to Corrie as Marcus was a well rounded character.

Sean and Todd are bad representations in my opinion.

Todd is a godsend. You can bend him to plenty of good stories

Sean is expendable
Get todd to find a way to get rid of him

The best gay character of all time was Freddie in Eldorado. The revelation of his long-lost daughter, the gradual rebuilding of their relationship, the awkwardness with her fiancée, Freddie's secret boyfriend, the revelation of the secret boyfriend's identity and subsequent death, Freddie's attempts to contain his grief so that nobody would know the secret, the deceased secret boyfriend's father finding out, etc etc etc ... fantastic soap, never bettered even after 20+ years. All the interfaith stuff explored with Christian and Syed with done with Freddie and Javier in 1992/3.

Hollyoaks has a good history of gay male characters- particularly as they aren't very similar. There's been lesbian and bi characters as well.

Sadly Hollyoaks makes characters gay at the drop of a hat to accomodate storylines though. But I agree JP, Esther and Ste are good.

And I agree about Todd in CS too, hes great. Marcus was one of the best characters too. Get rid of Sean.

I really liked Brendan Boulter out of Family affairs, He was black, and Bi ...a well rounded character who was young, hid things from his family, made mistakes, broke hearts...Family affairs had a lot of great LGB characters during it's course.

Hollyoaks has had some good characters but sadly now they seem too turn people gay/lesbian just too get another situation/storyline out of them...

Home and Away need too sort themselves out and introduce a gay character!! it is 2014 ffs!! come on!

Neighbours has done really well with Chris Pappas, a well rounded young man who just happens to be gay and soon we will have Nate Kinski too, I am not sure why Home and Away seems to ignore gay characters although I dont watch the show.

I think Hollyoaks overdoes it a little bit, I think it adds characters for the sake of being gay, like George. I don't think he's a character that does anything for the show and I think the only reason he's still on the show is because he's gay.

I like John Paul because his gay storyline has worked well for the actor and character and the way it was dealt with back then was handled well, especially when involving Craig. And though I think Ste is a good gay character and better gay, I think the only reason the character became gay is because the actor did and, depending on how soon after the actor came out that Ste became gay, it strikes to me as potentially lazy character development. But I stopped watching just before the actor came out and so didn't see Ste's character develop. Despite that, I prefer ste now as opposed to then, even though they didn't nesecarily need him to be gay in order for him to change his character.

And also the gay characters aren't all outsiders. JP and Craig were quite popular and 'cool', Ravi was 'cool', Kris was quirky.

And then there was the legendary Brendan Brady.

John Paul's 'coming out' storyline in Hollyoaks 2006/7 was the best 'gay' storyline I've ever seen in any soap. It was brilliant. Hollyoaks used to be by far the best soap when it came to the representation of realistic gay characters; not so much any more.

Currently I have found that JP & Ste in Hollyoaks are good gay characters, but JP's current storyline seems to be dragged out a lot.

EastEnders, for male gay characters, has Johnny, & I've really enjoyed his storyline that also includes Linda too.

Todd in Corrie is able to do any storyline that SB throws at him, I actually enjoy him as a character even though many on here don't.

I'd quite like it if Kris popped back in. I liked that he had a sharp tongue & wit. If not him then another character who is really quick with put downs & sarcasm, but becomes likeable too & not a stereotypical type either.

You'd kind of hope that these days, we'd be talking about quality, not quantity really. Yes, of course I want to see diverse characters on a soap, and it would be *so* weird now if diverse sexuality wasn't reflected. But I also want good characters - well-rounded and thought out, with proper backstory, who don't just drop their knickers for whoever, just because some daft storyliner has decided it'd cause an OMG.


Got to say, I'm no fan of JP now (or of HO), but originally, that was a really good storyline, and HO showed how it could be done. The Brendan/Ste story was also amazing for pushing boundaries when it came to portraying gay relationships - that Ste was so cool and loving about it, but Brendan was so messed up. I quite liked Kris. And Esther was good when she first came in. It's a real shame HO has abandoned any attempt to do justice to sexuality and relationships. Ste going hetero for Sinead just for an OMG shows that in technicolour, but the rot set in a while back with the cringey box-ticking of George and Tilly, and Doug going insta-gay.

Emmerdale have got pretty good form though. Paul was a very good character. Finn Barton's great - a proper "I'm gay and it's not even an issue" character, who's more defined by his relationships with his family and friends than his sexuality. Ali and Ruby are pretty much the only convincing lesbian couple I've seen on soap. I just like how they all get on with it. I won't include the return of Angsty "No Touching" Aaron, he's a bit of a throwback really.

As already echo JP and Craig was far the best gay s/l for me, JP coming out and relationship with Craig was a revelation, it's hard to believe now that was BK work.

As for best gay character I'm gonna say the one and only Brendan Brady, breathtaking performances and he was more then just his sexuality, he did some of HO best work.

I enjoyed Aaron's coming out in ED was so raw and emotional and I love what they've done with Johnny on EE.

I'm don't enjoy Corrie's gay characters, Marcus was for me the only decent one, I dislike Sean I think his nothing more then a glorify extra and Todd is too panto for me, Sawfie and Maddah do my head in.

I actually thought Aarons coming out was good in ED.

I agree with others who says JP/Craig was the best coming out storyline in soap. It was brilliantly handled. I agree also with whoever said that it is difficult to believe that the storyline was BK's work.

As far as Emmerdale is concerned, I haven't watched it in years but I was watching it around the time Aaron came out. That was another fantastic storyline even if the whole concept has been done to death by then. Although Emmerdale can technically get away with being a bit behind with social issues since it's set in the country rather than the city (like Eastenders).

Corrie is terrible when it comes to gay characters and storylines. I enjoyed the Sophie/Sian storyline but other than that I'm not impressed. Sean is just a caricature and a stereotype. Fair enough, a lot of gay men are camp but he's ridiculously two-dimensional. Although having seen the actor on I'm A Celebrity amongst other things, it does seem like he's just playing himself which doesn't say much for him as an actor.

Eastenders is in between Corrie and Hollyoaks for me. There was always potential for some gay characters like Syed, Danny and Johnny but in the end it is almost like the producers didn't/don't know what to do with them. Once Syed's "Love or Faith" storyline was tied up, Christian and Syed basically became extras until they left in a questionable storyline. Danny had bags of potential - a character who defeats the gay stereotype, a gay character who isn't that likeable and to top it off he was played by a brilliant actor. What did that silly Newman woman do? Pair him up with Lucy. That was a cop out in all honesty or at the very least a storyline device. Then there's Johnny. His coming out storyline was poorly handled. One minute he is crying in his father's arms about being gay, then the next he's comfortable enough to talk about it and have sex with a random boy he met at Gay Pride. He should have just come in the show already gay to be honest. Tina and Tosh are far less contrived even though Tina having to constantly reference the fact that she's a lesbian and likes women is a bit try-hard in terms of making the show look PC and modern when it comes to homosexuality.

I think without a doubt HO is the best at exploring and portraying gay relationships... or at least it used to be. I haven't been as huge a HO viewer as I was from 2006-2009 but I've seen some of Brendan Brady and he's the best gay character I've seen in soap.

Credit where credit's due - Aaron's coming out storyline was a stonker, really good stuff. The last of those really angsty "I hate myself because I'm gay" storylines (with the exception of Brendan Brady, who also finally accepted it, and just got on with being Badass and Gay). It's just after Aaron came out that Emmerdale had the problem, because it all got bogged down in the relationship with Jackson, and his right to die stuff, and it was just horrible melodrama. I don't think they knew what to do with him once he was out, tbh.

Hopefully we're in a new phase now, where gay characters don't have to have massive (or any) angst about who they are, unless they're still in denial. They just have lives and relationships and storylines like anyone else - hopefully believable, interesting ones.

I thought it was a good character development as when he came into the soap, he was always into trouble etc which isn't the stereotypical gay. He had a violent relationship (he was the dominant) with Amy before he came out, which he then embarked on a homosexual storyline with Brendan (where he (Ste) is the victim). We also saw his relationship with his mother (Pauline) and their estranged relationship so i though it was a very good character development there.

I agree, it's a very good character development, I really enjoy Ste's character because of it. I just wonder if it would be the same if the actor hadn't told anybody he was gay and they'd just made the character become gay just because it was easier. Because I think it's a great character and I wonder if he would be the same.

I cannot be arsed about identifying with them. I am far too unique to be represented in a soap

I could not care if we had no gay people or a hundred. I sometimes think all you like to have is your boxes ticked.

I want well thought out characters played by good actors. The characters sexuality is not really a big deal.