Colin and Barry. Their gay relationship was one of the more controversial storylines in 1987.
Rob McNeil wrote in the Belfast Telegraph of his hopes for Ulster’s future and made reference to the first interracial kiss on television between Captain James T Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura on November 22, 1968. His ( McNeil’s) dream encompassed a shared future, studying a space science qualification, which would help an evolving Ulster economy towards space ‘that final frontier’.
For out community, the first gay kiss on television occurred on East Enders in January 1989, twenty-one (21) years later.!
Today interracial kissing doesn’t get a mention or complaint, but two gay men kissing still results in complaints. Darran Little, the write of the episode, has said that ‘no progress’ in peoples’ attitudes towards gay people has been made. Approximately 10 years before this episode, a storyline in Coronation Street with Todd kissing Nick also resulted in complaints.
Society is not adjusting fast enough to the fact that the LGBT are real, honest, people who deserve to live the full active lives just as heterosexuals do!