Ryan Murphy — The Most Powerful Man in Television and LGBTQ Icon

11 min readApr 17, 2023

Ryan Murphy brought LGBTQ Issues to mainstream television, and gave us both entertainment and a history lesson in the process. Here I discuss a few landmark moments.

Just a small town girl, Livin’ in a lonely World.

A few years ago, you couldn’t go to any bar without hearing Don’t Stop Believin’, Journey’s biggest hit. It was brought back into popular culture with the ground-breaking show Glee.

Dance floors, Karaoke and people mouthing the words as they walked from A to B with it blasting from their iPod. It was everywhere. It’s hard, even today, not to hear that song and to not think of Glee; the musical comedy drama that aired for six seasons from 2009–2015. (I’m also going to mention Family Guy here, because I need to, this being another show that also help re-popularise the classic track)

Glee was an important show, for many reasons — the primary being its representation of LGBTQ youth. Through its positive representation of the LGBTQ community, Glee encouraged viewers to be more accepting and understanding of others who are different from them, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The infamous coming out episode still stands as one of the most powerful pieces of television — with the song Defying Gravity from the hit-show Wicked, perfectly personifying the challenges and fear that many LGBTQ people have faced as they take the important step in coming out. The anchor of music brought issues such as self-identification, confidence, the importance of being true to ourselves to a much wider audience. The impact of this cannot be understated. Teenagers didn’t have to wait to leave school, programmes like Glee encouraged teenagers to be true to themselves. It was a landmark television show. Not necessarily a key moment for LGBTQ television, that came much earlier with Queer As Folk. However, QAF was a show for adults, broadcast past the watershed and was pretty much no-holds barred in its depiction of sex. Glee was different. Glee was for families.

An Image of the character Kurt from the TV Show ‘Glee’ in the episode where he comes out as gay. — Kurt from the TV Show Glee — Twentieth Century Fox/Disney

Glee was developed by gay television producer, Ryan Murphy. Murphy didn’t have a traumatic upbringing, he’s on record stating that his own coming out story was not one of pain or neglect. Despite growing up as a Catholic in Indianapolis, Indiana, in a time where it was not uncommon for those who grow up under the umbrella of religion to have the challenge of coming out be worsened. He had little issue being himself, we went into journalism and moved into television. In researching this essay, I discovered that Ryan Murphy produced Nip/Tuck, an absolutely bonkers show that I was addicted too (along with, of course Sex and the City).

Since Glee aired, Murphy has produced some dark and terrifying stories, along with stories of hope and survival. Where LGBTQ characters are brought to life without stereotyping or exaggeration. For me, this is where the stories produced by Murphy really shine, because issues, and historical moments can be depicted with emotional connections to the viewer, without being overly political. It’s the story that important and it’s through expertly woven narrative that we can make a connection to the viewer, and educate and encourage empathy.

Strike A Pose.

In 1990 Jennie Livingstone produced, what I believe to be, the most important and powerful documentaries ever made. Not just in the LGBTQ Genre (which isn’t really a genre, but we’ll come onto that later), but ever. Paris is Burning was filmed over half a decade in the mid to late 80s and documented the Drag Balls of New York City at the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis. Featuring LGBTQ people from multiple ethnic groups and backgrounds, Paris is Burning gives the viewers an intimate look at the surrogate families that develop through a mutual passion for these Drag Balls. A competition where contestants walk a catwalk under different categories. These families are structured as Houses with rivalries not being uncommon between each House as they compete. The stories of being kicked out of home, living on the streets, drugs, AIDS and the epilogue where we come to realise how so many of the subjects never lived to see the final edit.

Have you ever done the Vogue dance? (Don’t lie, yes you have) Voguing came from the Drag Balls of New York City. They didn’t follow pop culture. They invented it.

If this sounds familiar, that’s because RuPaul has made millions of dollars from the format.

The people featured in the documentary have had a variety of experiences since the film was released. Some of the subjects of the film continued to participate in the ballroom scene and became well-known figures in the LGBTQ community. For example, Willi Ninja, who was featured in the film as a prominent voguer, went on to have a successful career as a dancer and choreographer.

Unfortunately, many of the subjects of the film have since passed away, often as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic that swept through the LGBTQ community during the 1980s and 1990s. Some of the notable figures from the film who have died include Venus Xtravaganza, an aspiring transgender model, and Freddie Pendavis, a member of the House of Xtravaganza.

Murphy is Burning

In 2019, Murphy, along with original subjects from Paris is Burning, namely Jose Gutierrez Xtravaganza who is cast as a Judge and credited as Executive Producer and Jennie Livingstone, broke new ground in LGBTQ drama and in particular on-screen transgender representation on mainstream television with Pose. A dramatisation of the 80s era of Drag Balls in New York City. The programme isn’t just a love letter to Paris is Burning, it’s a devastating story of heartbreak, love, death, family in a time when HIV/AIDS was at its worst. Pose isn’t just a masterpiece of LGBTQ television, it’s the first television show to have the largest ensemble cast of transgender actors in television history. And in 2022, MJ Rodriguez became the first Trans woman to win the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a television drama. Unfortunately, the Golden Globes had no television broadcast when she won, due to COVID-19. However, you can read MJ’s acceptance ‘speech’ on her Instagram.

For me, the thing that makes Pose so special is that it is raw television. It strips away everything down to the thing we can all connect with — humanity. The expertly crafted characters and storylines being an amalgamation of many real people, and real scenarios — you see how some of the stories are going to develop hours before they do, and as you watch, you wish that the stories, as they take a dark turn, would play out differently — but it doesn’t. As I mentioned earlier, it’s a raw, devastating, tragic and expertly crafted emotional experience. I have probably shed at least one tear in every episode, and in some others, I was a total mess — I mean properly ugly crying.

Ryan Murphy has proven time and time again, much as our own Russell T Davis, here in the UK, with the already mentioned Queer As Folk and the recent It’s A Sin, Cucumber, and The Second Coming — as a fearless writer and producer. Every time a pen is put to paper, the needle moves and people’s eyes are opened slightly to the rich hidden world of LGBTQ culture — but without, as social media may have you believe, ‘throwing it in your face’. Apart from that first episode of Queer As Folk. I definitely got something in my face when I saw that.

Anyway, moving on…

The Horror Story

July 15th, 1997, and on the steps of Casa Casuarina, outside of his own home, Gianni Versace was tragically shot dead by Andrew Cunanan.

Casa Casuarina has, as you can see from the photo I took when I visited in 2018, been turned into a restaurant.

In January 2018, Ryan Murphy’s second season of American Crime Story focused on the death of Gianni Versace in a harrowing 9-episode drama that covers subjects such as homophobia, obsession, love, lust and deception. Murphy unravels harsh truths about the attitudes of the 90s. Although the world had be progressing both societally and politically since the 80s, as shown in Pose. In The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story we seen challenges that LGBTQ people faced, regardless of fame, wealth or status.

American Crime Story Season 2: The Assassination of Gianni Versace RED BAND Trailer

Versace was an icon of the fashion world. There isn’t a person on this earth who doesn’t know his name. But prior to 1995, despite living with his partner Antonio D’Amico in a relationship that lasted 15 years, right up until his death, Versace lived in the closet, with pressure from the family to remain there. In the series, Donatella Versace is played by Penelope Cruz (quite brilliantly). It should be noted that in the 90s Queer Cinema had started to become more mainstream with films such as The Birdcage, Heavenly Creatures, God’s and Monsters, Pricilla Queen of the Desert being successes both commercially and critically — however evolving acceptance of the LGBTQ community was still very much in its infancy and Donatella’s cold demeaner as depicted in the series could be interpreted as either homophobia or protection of the brand. In many ways, we can look at pop music in the late 90s in the UK — it was quite obvious these bands had members who were gay, but were on Saturday morning television saying “They hadn’t found the right girl”. (I came out in 1997 and this INFURIATED me) The point being that in the 90s, being gay was not widely accepted and in fact following the death of Gianni in 1997, his partner was left a generous pension and property in the will actually got a small fraction of it, due to the properties being owned by the company Gianni founded, with his family.

There has been an ongoing debate about whether people from the LGBTQ community should be given preference when playing LGBTQ people on film. Now, this blog isn’t about that and to be honest, I don’t have any strong feelings about this subject either way — with Pose, casting a majority Trans cast was a stroke of both creative genius and as I mentioned earlier, it moved the needle slightly. But in the case of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story the choice to cast heterosexual (and LGBTQ ally, I should add) Darren Criss, who had previously worked with Murphy on Glee was a stroke of pure genius. His performance as Andrew Cunanan was on another level, he played the serial killer with such razer perfection, vulnerable, sincere and at the same time intense and terrifying. Cunanan was a gay man who was a serial killer. In a lot of Queer cinema and television over the decades the ‘being gay’ part often becomes the defining characteristic of the performance. And that’s not to say that’s because of the actors’ choices — it’s also down to the writing, the direction etc. Being gay on film and TV was, for me, always a bit cringeworthy, like watching a pantomime. Maybe one day I’ll put my thoughts on how camp became straight on paper, but until then back to American Crime Story.

The point is that Murphy creates LGBTQ characters where their sexuality or gender is not what defines the person. We can pick any character from American Horror Story, Pose, The New Normal, Glee — each character written has complexities that make them human and just like every other LGBTQ person, being gay is part of us, it’s not what defines us — and with Darren Criss, who played Cunanan he played a serial killer, who being gay was a characteristic, but not the defining one — and this is what made the character so impressive to watch.

Monster

“Netflix has removed the LGBTQ tag from its Ryan Murphy-created Jeffrey Dahmer limited series, “Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.” The show, starring Evan Peters as the notorious serial killer, launched Sept. 21 on the streaming platform and was categorized under the LGBTQ tag for at least two days. A source with knowledge of the situation confirmed to Variety the LGBTQ tag was officially removed by Friday, Sept. 23.”

(Source: Variety, https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/dahmer-lgbtq-tag-netflix-removes-category-backlash-1235387213/)

Is LGBTQ a film / television genre? This is a good question. I think that there is clear line between genre and subject matter, Ryan Murphy’s recent series Dahmer is Horror and Drama. Though it’s based on a true story; it’s not, in my opinion an show that may be categorised as ‘LGBTQ’, despite the fact that Jeffrey Dahmer was gay. Monster, isn’t a story about a gay serial killer. It’s a docudrama about a serial killer, who happens to be gay. So, I understand the upset that was felt when Netflix had categorised it as such. I am also glad that they removed the tag. One of the themes that runs through Murphy’s productions is authenticity, so to be authentic in both storytelling and character building takes a look at harsh truths and presents them in an honest way. The show Dahmer is the last one I want to talk about. This was, in my opinion one of the most powerful television shows of 2022. In so much that it took me several months to finish, purely because each episode was incredibly intense to watch. Evan Peters, who was expertly casted, previously working with Murphy on both Pose and American Horror Story. On working on Pose, in 2018, as the ‘lone white, straight guy’ Peters said to GQ Magazine, “There was no hesitation. There was only curiosity. I had never seen Paris Is Burning, and then I watched it and I fell in love with it. This is a whole world and culture that I knew nothing about. It’s been a massive learning experience, and I’ve grown a lot. I’ve learned a lot from the trans community. They’re an incredible strong community, and they’ve had to deal with way bigger problems than anything I’ve ever had to deal with. It just makes me humbled.”

Evan Peters as Jeffrey Dahmer — Image courtesy of Netflix

To be able to portray an LGBTQ character with such authenticity, truth with the intensity as we see in Dahmer, probably hones back to his time working on Pose and being saturated in the community. Hearing stories of the inner conflict that LGBTQ people often feel; depression, loss of oneself and in the case of Dahmer, trauma.

How we, as LGBTQ people deal with things differs from person to person. A debate can be made about whether the part of us that defines our sexual orientation can manifest itself in different ways. And this is what Murphy’s productions have been able to do so well. He humanises each aspect of the characters, as I have previously mentioned, staying clear from the stereotypes and pantomimical, to simply saying ‘this person happens to be gay, bi or trans, and here is a window in their lives. From the teenager who is terrified of coming out to his father, the obsession of the fan who seeks affection from his idol, to the monster who’s inner trauma manifests itself in the purest of evil. Ryan Murphy has brought to the small-screen LGBTQ characters unlike any other producer in television. In a world of short attention and headlines, he challenges our own unconscious bias with every single episode.

Ryan Murphy — The Most Powerful Man in Television and LGBTQ Icon

Written by Anthony Gifford