Out of the Closet, in a Latino Family

They were considered television’s “groundbreaking” images of gay life: Roseanne Barr kissing another woman; Ellen DeGeneres announcing she was a lesbian; Will, of NBC’s “Will & Grace,” exuding stability and togetherness. Though they were pushing the dialogue on gay issues, these story lines occurred deep inside pop culture’s mainland, which is populated by white characters and Anglo-centric story lines.

Tonight, offshore from the bulk of programming and images most of America sees each night, Showtime’s “Resurrection Blvd.”--the first Latino drama on television--airs an episode in which the Santiago family learns one of its cousins, Tommy, is gay. Starring in “Saliendo” (Coming Out) is Douglas Spain, who just returned from shooting HBO’s “Band of Brothers” in England.

Tommy returns home from school in Boston for a family Thanksgiving dinner in East L.A. He brings his lover but introduces him as his best friend, even though his mother suspects there is more to their relationship. The mother, played by Elizabeth Pena, finally confronts Tommy on Thanksgiving Day.

News of Tommy’s sexual orientation is met with unrestrained horror and words like “disgusting.” Tony Plana, who directed the episode for the cable network and who stars as the series’ patriarch, Roberto Santiago, said there was a collective effort to avoid being what he called “Pollyannaish or didactic.”

“The first reaction is rejection or denial. I really pushed for this,” Plana said. “I knew we needed to create a prismatic effect--where everyone’s coming at this from a different angle and, in a way, is justified.”

Tommy ultimately returns to Boston, leaving behind a father who is ashamed of his only son and a mother who feels tested by the new situation.

“Most networks would have pushed you to soften it,” Plana said. “Showtime was a little concerned about it, but eventually they went along with us. We felt he needed to represent that percentage of people in society who feel that way and who will always feel that way.”

The plot was ordered up by the show’s creator, Dennis Leoni, whose brother died of AIDS in 1991. The writer, Josh Stern, worried that Leoni expected a feel-good, preachy story, and he could not envision turning Tommy’s revelation into a lesson of gay acceptance among the traditional Santiagos.

“Josh was a little tentative about this because obviously network television has tackled this issue before, but we’ve never seen it from the Latino family perspective, where it can be a repulsive thing for a macho family,” Leoni said. Stern ultimately wrote what he thought was an honest series of events after Tommy comes out to a family that has never dealt directly with homosexuality.

“It’s a really touchy subject,” said Spain. “[The] name being carried on ... those [are] expectations of a Latino father for his son to carry it on. Then there’s a lot of religion--Catholicism--where people feel God has repaid them with this.”

When Spain first read the script for “Saliendo,” he had his doubts. There were several instances in the episode in which Tommy was supposed to say, “I’m gay,” but Spain wanted to save that line for the moment in which his character presents himself honestly to his father, an ex-convict. Plana and Stern agreed.

“The father saw rape happen all around him, and in his twisted view that’s what he thought homosexuality was,” Stern said. “We found a way to make [Tommy’s coming out] messy and ugly, and there’s no preaching and proselytizing. One thing I’m most proud about is that every time someone has something to say about it, they have a response from someone else. No one’s able to get on a soap box. No one is politically correct.”

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“Resurrection Blvd.” can be seen tonight at 10 on Showtime. The network has rated it TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children younger than 14).