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90210 Gay Parent Article
"I'm very happy with what I saw," says Hayden. "I certainly identified with it." On 90210, Samantha Sanders is a well-to-do former television star. On Dec. 2, she came out to her adopted son Steve, and on the next episode she went public when she made the same announcement on a radio show. Christina Belford, who plays Samantha, an occasionally recurring character on 90210, had shelved her acting career in favor of doing commercial voice-overs, but when the producers asked her to come back this season for two episodes, she agreed. While Belford could not be reached for comment, her agent says that Belford has no plans to return this season, so Samantha's lesbian story line will likely not be followed up. "Still," says Hayden, "it's better than nothing." What's novel about this plot line, Hayden says, is that it deals with a mother who was married in a heterosexual relationship, who comes out to her child after he is grown. Most of the time the media deals with gay parents, says Hayden, the spotlight is focused on gay couples who are already out and trying to have children. "Formerly marrieds is a very important issue to me," says Hayden, who is formerly married. "I feel a lot of the media attention doesn't go to those issues, because it's not as trendy, even though we make up the vast majority of gay parents." Hayden is a board member of the Family Pride Coalition, a group for gay parents that pays close attention to media portrayals of gay parents. In the past, the organization has honored shows like Friends, Ellen, and The Tracey Ullman Show for their positive depictions. When the board meets next month, says Hayden, 90210 will likely be discussed as a potential honoree. Ray Drew, executive director of Family Pride Coalition, notes that whenever a television show dealing with gay parents airs, "it causes an increase in calls to our office." Felicia Park-Rogers, director of Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere, agrees that television portrayals are essential for reaching people in similar situations. "Especially something like 90210, which reaches a mainstream audience," she says. "There are 12 year olds all over the country who watch that show, many with gay parents, and this helps them to see that there are other people like them, and they're not alone." Park-Rogers adds that this episode is unique for dealing with parents coming out to grown children. While Park-Rogers' own father came out when she was a toddler, her mother came out to her when she was a teenager, and she says the experience was very different. "It's a whole different relationship to it when you see somebody one way," she says, "and then they transform in front of you." Park-Rogers says that while a handful of shows have tackled gay parenting issues in recent years, 90210 is the first to seriously address parents coming out to older children. "We have never seen anything like this in a series," she says. "It's powerful." --Wayne Hoffman
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Steve Sanders (played by Ian Ziering)