Eastenders reaction – have we really come that far ?

(photo BBC)

by Terry Gee

We think we’ve come a long way in the battle for equality, but when a wave of negative comments hit the net because two guys get it on in Eastenders, you realise we still have a long way to go.

Last week, the popular British soap broadcast a scene where Ben Mitchell and Paul Coker stripped and kissed in a funeral parlour next to a dead body. The implication they had sex was there, but obviously not the actual act. People quickly hit social media to vent.

Eastenders was quick to respond: “The millions of regular EastEnders fans who tune in each week know and expect dramatic storylines. We are always mindful of our time slot in which we are shown and the scenes in question were implied and not explicit.”

Now it may seem that it was just the choice of venue that sparked the 48 complaints to the BBC. If this were an isolated incident, perhaps, but just last month when the two first kissed a number of viewers hit twitter to say how disgusting it was. We actually couldn’t find the original posts when looking this week and it looks like they have now been removed as the media exposed these people as homophobes.

Luckily, there are still enough people in the world with common sense to counteract the negative posts.

Ofcom has said they will assess the complaints before deciding whether to investigate or not.This is not the first gay couple in Eastenders and not the first kiss. For those of us who remember the show in the 80s, Colin and Guido were the first two guys to kiss in a British soap.

The more “shocking” same-sex kisses there are, the more accepted they will become. We hope Ofcom sees this as it is – a group of homophobes who can’t accept a gay kiss is the same as a straight kiss.