“General Hospital” spoilers reveal that a wedding is in the works between Lucas Jones (Ryan Carnes) and Brad Cooper (Parry Shan), but will it happen and do show runners have to force it through lest they seem intolerant? Brad proposed at the GH Nurses Ball and Lucas accepted, but is marital bliss what we really want for these two? And does a wedding best serve LGBT storylines in soaps? Here are some of our thoughts on this all-important matter…
General Hospital has always been great about writing plot lines on the forefront of social awareness. Their award-winning work on HIV/AIDS in the 90s with Stone Cates (Michael Sutton) and Robin Scorpio (Kimberly McCullough) was well-written and heart wrenching. Also well-crafted were GH’s turns with cancer with Monica Quartermaine (Leslie Charleson) and Alexis Davis (Nancy Lee Grahn). These story lines were all encompassing, dramatic and socially important. GH has received a number of health and media awards for their work.
But the question is, with the Brad and Lucas wedding, is GH simply bucking for more awards, or are the GH writers truly invested in a tantalizing story line? Gay couples are limited in some of the standard soap shenanigans that other couples can get into – no unexpected pregnancy story lines or paternity mysteries (at least not yet), but it seems like they need to shake things up.
Will “General Hospital” writers marry Brad and Lucas off, have them adopt a baby and file them away as the only happily-ever-after couple in Port Charles? And, if so, isn’t this truly anti-equality for LGBT? Why aren’t they plotting, cheating and sleeping around more? Couldn’t Felix DuBois (Marc Anthony Samuel) show up and protest the wedding? Couldn’t we have Brad get tipsy during his bachelor party and shag Felix (or some handsome stranger)?
What would be more interesting to me is if Brad got drunk on his wedding night and slept with Britt Westbourne (Kelly Thiebaud) resulting in a pregnancy. First, I miss Britt’s interaction with Brad and second, they need some drama and tension in their relationship. The problem is there aren’t enough gay players on the scene to construct true soap opera plots with these characters. With a field of just three, you can only do so much.
Perhaps GH could introduce a bisexual male character (or convert one of their existing characters to bisexual). Franco (Roger Howarth) would be a great choice since he’s sexy and out there. Seems like Franco would be open to all sorts of things. Just spit-balling, but how about a gay mob character? The big issue, to me, is that GH is making a nod at writing gay characters on the show, but has them effectively partitioned off and seems content to pat themselves on the back by having the second-ever male gay wedding on daytime soaps and be done with it.
The Days of Our Lives gay wedding last year of Will Horton (Guy Wilson) and Sonny Kiriakis (Freddie Smith) was the first and DOOL has received several GLAAD awards. If General Hospital is chasing a GLAAD award, they’ll likely land it if they carry off the wedding of Brad and Lucas but, as a fan and a chronicler of the show, I feel a more dramatic outcome and interruption of the wedding would be a more fitting and “soapish” outcome.
So, whether the wedding goes on or not (likely it will), let’s hope that “General Hospital” show runners don’t let this relationship fade into banality and finds a way to amp up the drama. I like Brad as a schemer and quasi-bad guy and this kindler-gentler Brad that Lucas has encouraged makes Brad yawn-inducing. Let’s give this gay couple true soap equality by embroiling them in scandal, betrayal, affairs, and the usual drama we expect and love.
Share your thoughts on Brad, Lucas and where you’d like to see them go as a couple in the comments below. And be sure to watch GH then head back to CDL often for more “General Hospital” spoilers, news and gossip!