Mental Health Notes - News, Education and Advocacy

Homonegativity: What’s The Deal, ABC?

by Alicia Sparks, Mental Health Notes on November 5th, 2008

“According to a new study [...] homosexuals and bisexuals are about 50% more likely than their heterosexual counterparts to suffer from depression and abuse drugs [...] most likely due to the lifelong stresses caused by the discrimination and rejection that homosexuals and bisexuals suffer from.” (From About.com’s Depression Blog post, Homosexuality Strongly Linked to Depression and Suicide)

“Researchers at the University of Minnesota have published a study showing that the degree of internalized homonegativity (negative attitude towards homosexuality) among homosexual men is what predicts poor mental and sexual health – not the act of being homosexual.” (From ScienceDaily.com article, Homosexuals’ Negative Feelings About Sexuality Predict Poor Mental And Sexual Health)

Aside from it being the beginning of Election Day 2008, yesterday morning was a fairly regular morning. I woke up, let Miss Penny Lane outside, took Chopper for a stroll, poured myself some coffee (yes, my animals come before my coffee - and they’re the only things), and turned on the ol’ Compaq to check my email and begin the day.

It was at that point - the “check my email” point - that I saw over 10 emails from Momma Sparks, all of which were titled “Wow!”, “OMG!”,”Read this!”, or something similar.

And all the excitement was over…? Surely something uber important and presidential, right?

Nope. It was ABC’s ruling to break up the Grey’s Anatomy lesbian couple Callie Torres and Erica Hahn, and ultimately send Hahn packing (or driving, as we’re told that’s how it’ll happen).

There’s been a lot of commotion of this development, and the general consensus is that there’s some serious homophobia going on at ABC. Consensus that’s only being fanned by the departure of Alexis Meade (Rebecca Romijn), a transgendered character on Ugly Betty; the potential departure of Carmelita (Candis Cayne), a transgendered character on Dirty Sexy Money; and the apparent Changing of the Orientation for a new Grey’s Anatomy character Sadie (Melissa George), who was supposed to be bisexual and interested in Callie, but who will now…well, not be.

Does any of this warrant speculation? Personally, I think so (and I worry about the fate of Kevin and Scotty on Brothers & Sisters - I mean, geez, ABC, they’re still newlyweds!). But I speculate everything, so be your own judge.

In any event, if there is something to the removal of all these homosexual, bisexual, and transgendered characters on ABC…well, isn’t this the same kind of behavior that leads to the studies and findings I quoted above…? I’m not blaming ABC for all the homonegativity in the world, obviously, but…well, I just thought we’d come a longer way than that.

EDIT: Later this same day…After conversing with b5media’s very own Ugly Betty expert Tom Landers of Ugly Betty News, I’ve learned that Rebecca Romijn’s departure from Ugly Betty was a culmination of her real-life pregnancy (an event that would be difficult to write into a transgendered character’s role) and a lack of new storylines for Romijn’s character, Alexis Meade. 

Too, let’s keep in mind that several homosexual characters on various ABC shows are still around. It doesn’t appear that ABC is wiping out all gay characters.

Share This

POSTED IN: Mental Health Notes