TV series writers can have a huge effect on not only their shows but also our culture. But it takes courage. You’ve got to take a stand:
by Ali Liebegott
I was born in 1971, and came of age watching soap operas. This was pre-internet, before gay marriage was even a thought, when homosexuality was still a mental disorder in the DSM. When I remember back, the only images I can recall of LGBT people on TV involved people who were white and showed up only to hang themselves, or be runaway hustlers, or die slowly of AIDS, with their mothers crying at their bedside and their fathers brooding silently in hospital hallways.
I’ve been writing and publishing for over 25 years and many moons ago I bitterly “accepted” I’d never make a living solely as a writer. I hadn’t even made one-hundredth of my living as a writer, yet I trudged on with my little stories, all but sewing them into booklets in my bedroom a la Emily Dickinson.