Gay Supercouples
What do Hollyoaks, As The World Turns, Queer as Folk, Dante’s Cove and a German soap have in common? They all have featured a gay ‘super couple’ and today we celebrate those; from Justin and Brian in the American Queer as Folk through to John Paul McQueen and Craig Dean in Hollyoaks and Luke Synder and Noah Mayer in As The World Turns – we celebrate them all.
Brian Kenney and Justin Taylor in Queer as Folk
The American version of Queer as Folk was, to begin, essential a remake of its British counter-part with a few minor changes. In the British version teenager Nathan (Charlie Hunnam) meets Stuart Alan Jones (Aidan Gillen) on a night-out in Canal Street, Manchester. The two go home, have sex and Nathan falls heads over heels in love with Stuart but they never really get into a relationship and in the series finale Stuart heads off to America with best friend Vince (Craig Kelly). The American series though is very different – it quickly moves away from being a remake and gets its own identity. Teenager Justin (slightly older in the American version though, 17 compared to 125) meets Brian on Liberty Avenue and goes back to his place and has sex with him. As in the British series he falls completely in love with Brian but very slowly Brian falls in love with Justin.
Brian (Gale Harold) is quite content to carry on with his partying and sleeping around life style but slowly Justin (Randy Harrison) becomes a permanent presence in his life and when he elopes to New York Brian is quick to chase after him. His true feelings for Justin are proven when the teenager was savagely attacked by a homophobic fellow student. Of course true love is never an easy thing and each cheat of each other over the years – Justin even leaves Brian at one stage for another man. But despite their ups and downs they always find there way back together knowing they are meant to be. Slowly over the five years of Queers as Folk Justin changes Brian from being a player to someone who is prepared to commit and settle down.
John Paul McQueen and Craig Dean in Hollyoaks
Perhaps the romance between John Paul McQueen (James Sutton) and Craig Dean (Guy Burnet) is the perfect example of a modern-day Romeo and Juliet. Okay so the Dean and McQueen households weren’t warring with each other unlike the Capulet’s and Montague’s (well perhaps a bit following the revelation the duo were sleeping together) but the lies, deceit and doom that was part of the romance was certainly worthy of a Shakespeare tragedy. Fans of the two characters were hoping of romance between them from the moment after John Paul came out as gay but it was a slow burner. While John Paul quite clearly fancied Craig it was a long time coming before Craig realised his true feelings.
A confused Craig, who was in a relationship with dull Sarah (Loui Batley) but, struggled to make sense of his feelings towards John Paul. Incidentally Sarah herself would experiment with her sexuality several years later and end up dead in a parachute accident, see what we mean with the Shakespeare style doom. Craig ran out of an exam to be with John Paul but he was always in denial of his feelings even after the two started to sleep together. John Paul started to see Spike as he began to realise that he would never have Craig and later he dated Catholic Priest Kieron after Craig left the village to study at University. However, Kieron (Jake Hendricks) was killed by John Paul’s secret and vengeful half-brother Niall (Barry Sloane) but this was after he slept with Craig again (are you keeping up with this?). However, fans were pleased that Craig and John Paul got a happy ending when they left together – though John Paul returned a few weeks later when he was kidnapped by the deranged Niall. With its many twists, turns and complications the storyline won legions of fans but was also widely praised for its sensitive portrayal of the romance between Craig and John Paul, dubbed McDean but some.
Toby and Kevin in Dante’s Cove
Something all our super couples have in common is that everything seems set against them – fate just literally seems to conspire against them. In the case of Toby (Charlie David) and Kevin (Gregory Michael) from Dante’s Cove not only do they have to contend with the normal ups and downs of a relationship but also the supernatural problems that come with living on a island with a coven of witches. Kevin and Toby met in Florida and had a bit of summer loving but when Kevin’s homophobic step-father attacked him he decided to follow Toby back to the Cove to start a new life with him. All very well but beneath the Hotel where Toby, and Kevin, lived was a very determined man. Centuries before Ambrosius Vallin (William Gregory Lee) had been sealed in the basement by a vengeful Grace (Tracey Scoggins), his fiancée. Grace had discovered Ambrosius having sex with his butler and punished him by using her powers as a witch to lock him in the basement.
Ambrosius lures Kevin down to the basement and with loves true kiss sets himself free. Ambrosius then sets about trying to get Kevin away from Toby for himself. If attempting to kill Toby and hypnotise Kevin wasn’t bad enough Bro, as he becomes known, uses all kinds of magic to get what he desires. He seduces Toby’s best friend Adam (Jon Fleming), who is in denial about his sexuality, in order to get at Toby and make him jealous. Of course, there’s also Grace to deal with for the two; she’s quite happy to kill Kevin to make sure Bro doesn’t get what he desires. No one said the plots in Dante’s Cove were any good but then that’s not really why we watch!
Christian and Ollie in Verbotene Liebe (Forbidden Love)
It isn’t just us Brits and Americans who have created a gay supercouple for fans to enjoy. German soap opera Verbotene Liebe, which means Forbidden Love, has got in on the act as well and thanks to the rise of You Tube the romance between Ollie and Christian has been followed, and found fans, across the world. On a piece of trivia Verbotene Liebe is apparently a loose remake of the 1980s Australian series Sons & Daughters, hence the name Forbidden Love. Christian (Thore Scholermann) and Ollie (Jo Weil) story is similar to that, in some ways, of Craig and John Paul in Hollyoaks. Christian and Ollie start out friends, with Christian in a relationship with Coco, but when Christian finds out that Ollie is bisexual the nature of their relationship changes. To begin with Christian is off with Ollie but later apologies and the two become close friends again.
The first kiss between the two is to prove that Ollie really is bisexual – following his snog with Coco which prompted Christian to believe the lad was lying about his sexuality. Following the breakup of Christian and Coco the confused man goes onto a chat-room and pours out his heart to a stranger who, in true soap form, turns out to be Ollie. The pair later kiss again but this time for real. Following several more stop-starts the two finally embark on a relationship which they try to keep secret from their friends. The storyline is still on-going.
Luke Synder and Noah Mayer in As The World Turns
Now earlier on we said that Craig and John Paul of Hollyoaks certainly had that Romeo and Juliet feel but gay couple Luke and Noah from American soap As The World Turns certainly could have been written by Shakespeare. Such is the course of their on-off romance with the struggling to come-out, the rejection by family members, the suspicions of betrayal and a freak accident that leads one half to be blinded the resentful that the ‘Nuke’ storyline seems fit to be a Shakespeare play. Quite how we round-up, in a paragraph, everything that has happened to them over the past few years we don’t know, but we’ll try!
Luke (Van Hansis) comes out as gay and fancies his friend Noah (Jake Silbermann) who in the age old soap convention has a girlfriend. However, the pair share a kiss after Luke helps Noah do up his tie for some event or something. The kiss was the first of its time on daytime America and was subject to some criticism from pathetic homophobes – but ‘Nuke’ fans just loved it and were left wanting more. More followed as the characters locked lips several times more and eventually, through various twists and turns, became a couple. Hooray! In true soap style though the producers decided to throw in a few bumps for Luke and Noah – such as affairs and a freak accident that lead to one of them being blinded and resentful. As The World Turns has been in its dying days for some years now and CBS has now formally cancelled the soap. The romance between Luke and Noah was its last glory storyline which saw ratings rise and praise heaped on it – though this being America the homophobes were quick to criticise. With the ending of the soap months away now fans are hoping for a happy ending between Luke and Noah.
