With so much gay hub-bub in the news lately, I couldn't help but think back to some of the first bits of gay-oriented entertainment that were considered landmark for their time... "Making Love," "An Early Frost," even "Boys in the Band." I recall how stunning and important "The Truth About Alex" was back in 1986; this was an afterschool special about a teen being gay, for goodness sake. Or was it? The story here was really about Scott Baio's character, whose best friend is the one doing the actual coming out. And, if you look at it now, the script of this piece handles that process really, really poorly. Every time poor Alex, our gay character, touches on anything to do with the gay world, it turns out to be a miserable, stereotypical experience... a trucker hits on the kid in a public bathroom; nearly the entir worlds rejects him once he comes out; and, worst of all, his trip to a decent enough gay pub prompts an INTERVENTION (!!!) by his so-called caring friends. For cryin' out loud... the kid was just having a beer and making some new gay friends. Leave him be. The producers definitely had their hearts in the right place back in '86, but couldn't they have gotten somebody gay to write the script? Look at this show today and it doesn't come across as gay-positive at all.
