"Modern Family, The L Word and telling our stories" Summary

          In a Chicago magazine in 2010, Dana Rudolph tackles an important issue that was and still is arising in pop culture. She uses Modern Family and The L Word as examples of how LGBT parents are portrayed on television. On Modern Family, gay dads Mitchell and Cameron goes through the process of trying to get their adopted Asian daughter Lily into a prestigious preschool. Thinking that they are the epitome of diversity, they do not think they will face any problems. They then discover that their daughter is competing for a spot with an African American girl adopted by a lesbian couple, one of which is in a wheelchair. They realize that they were "out-diversified." Almost the same exact plot line was used in 2008 in The L Word when two moms tries to get their daughter into preschool but are "out-diversisified" by a a gay couple with multiple religions. Rudolph brings to attention how similar these plots are to show the lack of variety when it comes to LGBT parents on TV.
       The article then shifts to talk about how the majority of LGBT on television are upper-middle-class and white. In reality, one in five children that have same-sex parents grow up in poverty. Rudolph argues that storylines around LGBT parents need to start exapanding to represent all classes of same-sex parents. This can be done by hiring LBGT writers, but more importantly, all TV script writers need to go out and listen to the stories of same-sex parents. By hearing real stories, they will better understand what these families are going through, rather than just guessing. Writers need to do more research; there are tons of books containing stories and research about same-sex parents, as well as parenting groups that meet that would be open to sharing stories. Even online, the amount of anecdotes from LGBT parents far surpasses the narrow-minded plots that are portrayed in media. Rudolph encourages readers to push television networks to expand the stories of same-sex parents and to make them more realistic. The public also has to educate themselves in order to know what tv should be representing and what it is lacking. By simply educating ourselves and the people around us, Rudolph believes television networks will hear the complaints and begin to change.