Youre the first person Ive ever told

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Gross, L. (1996) Youre the first person Ive ever told: Letters to a fictional gay teen. In Michael Bronski (Ed.) Taking Liberties: Gay Men's Essays on Politics, Culture, and Sex, pp. 369-386. Richard Kasak Books.

  • "In 1992, daytime TV serial One Life To Live (OLTL) began what was to be the longest and most complex television narrative ever to deal with a lesbian or gay character."

Letters

  • Actor Ryan Phillippe received inordinate number of fan letters, nearly half from young gay men.
  • Larry sampled ~150 letters written between June and November, 1992 (373).
  • There were no negative letters until the character began to have a relationship with another young gay person (373)

Parasocial nature of the interaction

  • Most recognize that RP is an actor and Billy is a character (381)
  • Parasocial, strictly defined, is in "defiance of objective reality" (383)
    • Tendency to be in the absence of "authentic" relationships in their lives (383)


Jump offs

  • Fricke, Aaron (1981), memoir of growing up gay
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