I noted not that long ago that the only out actor currently working in daytime is One Life to Live's Scott Evans. Evans plays Oliver Fish, a recurring character who we've been seeing more often in the last couple of months. Scott first gained attention as an out gay man when his brother, film star Chris Evans, talked about his sexuality in a recent interview.
The Young and the Restless has gone a step further than OLTL and hired an out actress to play a leading role, something that I believe is a first for Daytime. I'm talking about Clementine Ford (the real life daughter of actress Cybill Shepherd, by the way), who has joined the show as Mac Browning, a leading character with a lot of history and family connections on the show.
I think it's fairly obvious that there are many LGBT actors working in daytime, and many more who've worked in the medium over the years (a few of whom have come out after the fact, like former Y&R heartthrob Thom Bierdz), but for the most part being in the closet is very much a part of life for LGBT soap stars, whether they like it or not.
Back in 1994 Keith Pruitt, an actor who had been on Guiding Light and As the World Turns and was on the soap Loving at the time, was a victim of a hate crime, being beaten along with his partner for holding hands on the street. Instead of keeping quiet about an attack which highlighted his sexuality, as many in the business would have preferred, Pruitt openly discussed the case and testified against his attackers, sending them to prison.
His openness more or less cost him a career in the Soap business, though he went on to become a successful composer before dying tragically late last year after suffering injuries in a house fire.
With the all too recent history of Pruitt in mind, having both Scott and Clementine working as Out actors in daytime is a pretty big deal. We may finally be seeing the beginning of change in the industry.
I'll be back a bit later to write about today's Nuke scenes on As the World Turns.
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