Daytime's Newest Gay Character

Oakdale is certainly becoming a mecca for gay characters, at least in Soap terms. Most soap towns, as you know, have zero gay residents. A few may have one or two. Oakdale, the San Francisco of Illinois, has had quite the gay population explosion over the last few years: there's Luke and Noah, of course; Brian Wheatley; the late Reg Addington and his ex boyfriend Tony; and a handful of day player gay friends of Luke & Noah's who pop up now and again. Heck, being gay in Oakdale is so cool that they've even had fake gays like Zac Finn!

Soon, the town will boast another gay citizen: soap star Forbes March, formerly of All My Children and, most recently, One Life to Live, will be joining the show in July as Mason. The character will reportedly be an Advisor at Oakdale U who helps Noah with his film, and it's also being said that he will not be coming between Luke & Noah.

This is interesting, to say the least. The show has hired a well known actor to play the character, which means it definitely has the potential to be a long term role, and they've written Mason as gay even though he won't be a romantic obstacle to their established gay couple. So, what is the plan for him? Will we eventually see him involved in his own romance? Or will he, despite what the show is saying, actually prove to be what Zac wasn't: the third player in daytime's first all male love triangle?

One thing would seem certain: you don't hire an actor who looks like Forbes March (below, left, with OLTL co-star John Paul Lavoisier) and then not give his character some sort of a love life!
I know that the writing on this show is so bad that I'll probably hate whatever they do come up with, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited by the idea of another gay character on the show. Time, no doubt, will prove me foolish yet again, but until that happens I'm going to be looking forward to Mason's arrival on the scene.