Days Of Our Lives Gay Storyline

Oh chile!! As a lifelong soap opera fan who just happens to be African-American AND gay, I gagged when I saw the instant attraction Will Horton (Chandler Massey) had towards Sonny Kiriakis (Freddie Smith), who came to the fictional town to surprise his parents, Justin (Wally Kurth) and Adrienne (Judi Evans Luciano).  Will thought Sonny was one of the boyfriends of Abigail Deveraux (Kate Mansi), who revealed Sonny was her paternal cousin.  Adrienne is the sister of her father, Jack (Matthew Ashford).  Will and Abigail are cousins too since his dad, Lucas Horton, and her mother, Jennifer Deveraux (Melissa Reeves), are half-siblings.  It looks like Will and Sonny are distantly related since Will's great-uncle Bo Brady (Peter Reckell) is the first cousin of Justin. 

The Salem genealogies are so intertwined but it looks like Will and Sonny are going to be kissing cousins after all.  It looks like Will is going to be revealed as gay.  It was hinted on the soap opera and gay popular culture blogs and websites.  I assumed Will was going to fall for Chad Peterson-Woods (Casey Deidrick) but when Chad became the new boyfriend of Abigail, it was like nah! Well, Will is going to have a gay ol' summer and it will be with Sonny.  Unfortunately, Will's girlfriend, Gabi Hernandez (Camilla Banus), is going to be shocked and stunned.  I don't know if surprised since she confided to his great-grandmother, Caroline Brady (Peggy McCay), that maybe he is not into her.  That's right, Girlfriend! He's just not into you!! He's into guys!

This may be the first gay storyline for DAYS OF OUR LIVES but it is not the first time the soap has dealt with LGBT issues.  From 1976 to 1977, the popular heroine Julie Williams (Susan Seaford Hayes) was dealt with bisexuality when it was revealed that she was pursued by a man named Karl Duval (Alejandro Rey) and his WIFE, Sharon Duval (Sally Stark).  It was insinuated that a threesome was going to happen but that was very risque for daytime television.  Bisexuality was too, so Sharon's attraction to Julie was re-written as a crazed fascination she had for her.  The viewers were not ready for it, so Karl and Sharon were written out.  There was backstage problems between head writer Pat Falken Smith and the NBC top brass.  Julie was free to live married life with soulmate Doug Williams (real-life hubby Bill Hayes).  By the way, Julie is Will's second cousin.  Lucas's father, Dr. Bill Horton, and Julie's mother, the late Addie Horton Olson Williams, were siblings, so Lucas and Julie are first cousins.  It would be interesting to have Julie tell Will about her old friend, Sharon Duval, as her way of accepting him for who and what he is.  I doubt it though! I can wish, can't I?

Freddie played gay on the CW teen drama 90210 prior to his new role as Sonny Kiriakis.

IT'S A DONALD THING

Friday, June 24, 2011

2:00 PM