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Sunday 28 October 2007, by Newton : A loaded question, certainly... I was about to say "In an ideal world, it would be treated the same way" but half a second later realized in an Ideal World, we would all just be who we are to start with - without fear, repulsion, or hatred - thus no ining or outing would ever need occur because we’d just all appily be ourselves from the get -go. And I like the way Whedon handled Willow. She was jus always Willow - rarely was she labelled a lesbian, or bi, or anything, she was just herself. And coming to know and accept herself in no way voided her previous feelings for Xander or Oz. To paraphrase what Matt Roush said - we’re all far more complicated than a simple label could ever convey. To tie my response more to your question, the issue here is this character’s orientation was changed - not because he was discovering or coming to terms with his true self in the face of people around him who wouldn’t understand - but because in the *real* world, the very negative responses so many people actually do encounter and have to deal with were enough to make this character - a minor character (which I feel is significant in itself) change. I’m not even sure this negativity was actually encountered or just feared (either of which would have made interesting and valuable storylines on the show itself). The fact that the real world caused this minor fictional character to change orientation to the less controversial "straight guy" speaks volumes about what REAL people must face. Thus in a show that is primarily about people who are different and learning to accept these differences as part of who they are in the face of adversity, fear, bigotry and prejudice from the so-called "normal people", this change is even MORE significant. I certainly see the irony. For those who can’t - just imagine if they made all the "Heroes" suddenly change into these so called "normal" people...without even acknowledging the change and hoping no one would notice - simply because some people don’t like the idea of people with unusual powers, people who are different from themselves. I wonder if anyone would complain about that? ’Hope that helps answer your question. :-) These comments are an anwser to this article : Buffy’s gay outing compared to Heroes’ Zach
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