Scott D. Pierce: “Tom Swift” is the first network show in American TV history to feature a gay person of color as the lead character. And that kind of representation counts.
Tian Richards as Tom Swift.The CW’s new series “Tom Swift” almost seems like a deliberate slap in the face to Utah Sen. Mike Lee. It’s not, but it’s also pretty clear that Lee will hate the show.Lee will, at least, hate the idea of the show, which I’m guessing he’ll never watch. Because the title character is a Black, gay billionaire who’s not afraid to let people know who he is.
If that were true, wouldn’t the overwhelming preponderance of straight characters have long ago changed the sexual orientation of gay viewers? It doesn’t work that way, and pretending it does is not just stupid but aggressively hateful and harmful. Even though his father, Barton , thinks Tom is too “sensitive.” The two are at odds when Barton takes off for outer space in a ship Tom designed, and things suddenly go wrong.
Creator/executive producer Cameron Johnson said Barton is concerned for Tom in the wrong way, fearing, “You’re gay and your life’s going to be harder and you’re not the type of person I wanted you to be. And Tom is, like, ‘I can do so many things, I just do it differently. I just am doing it gay. I’m doing it fabulously.’”
The original Tom Swift character, in a series of books that were first published in 1910, was neither Black nor gay. Books back then were remarkably racist by today’s standards.
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