What Alan Cumming's role as a gay lead means for mainstream TV
In Instinct, the actor plays a spy-author-professor-detective whose sexuality is both irrelevant and groundbreaking
It is hard to believe, given the wellspring of queer-centric entertainment we’ve been graced with over the last few years, that Alan Cumming’s character in the new police procedural Instinct is the first openly gay lead of an American broadcast drama, ever. Even with Oscar plaudits for Moonlight and Call Me by Your Name, with shows like Transparent, Looking and reboots of Will & Grace and Queer Eye, progress has remained slow in the mainstream.
In truth, the vacancy has gone pretty much to as “corporate apprehension”, Cumming’s character is certainly a step forward.
