Friday, November 1, 2013

The 50 Greatest Gay TV Characters

From:  The Backlot
46. 
Marco Del Rossi
Degrassi: The Next Generation

Actor: Adamo Ruggiero
2002-2008
Previous Rank: 39

Marco, all these pretty girls, and not one you like?” Oh, Mr. Del Rossi, you just don’t get it. Your son, Marco, can’t be bothered with all those pretty girls because he is the resident GTIC (Gay Teen in Charge) of Degrassi Community School. Viewers first fell in love with Marco when he appeared in season 2 as the shy, uncomfortable boy who hid his sexuality by pretending to date Ellie. That had predictably catastrophic results, but he became seared onto our hearts forever as we watched him come out to his parents, fall for a hot nuisance of a hockey player in Dylan, and grow into a confidant, out student body president crusading against idiotic blood donation laws, all while we forgave each of the severely questionable hairstyles in between.

In many ways, Marco can be considered the precursor to these proud, out glee clubbers we see today because when he made his debut eleven years ago (Eleven! The passage of time!), he was a somewhat rare specimen: the gay teen who was not a victim. Sure, he suffered enough unfortunate drama to last a lifetime, it’s Degrassi after all, but he was also popular, outspoken, and eventually self-assured, existing in a high school that ultimately treated his gayness as a fact of life rather than a reason to be an outcast.  

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