what may or may not be hard reality

I have to say, I'm quite proud of Kanal 5. We've had EuroPride in Stockholm this past week, and while this particular gay, while proud, has never felt any particular desire to attend pride (too many people in one place - I can stand the 25 000 orienteers, because the only thing they do is sit around mellowly, discuss the day's race, eat organic food, and go to bed early) and thus hasn't paid much attention to it, I did, however, pay attention to PrideWeek on Kanal 5.

Now, Kanal 5 is a pretty regular network, 1 of the 5 main ones, it's not culture, they tend to pass on documentaries in favour of shockumentaries, and the usual blend of crappy reality TV and various American shows. However, during all of last week, every evening was filled with LGBTQ programming, viewers voted for their favourite episodes of gay-friendly dramas like Queer as folk (UK version), Brothers & Sisters, Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and so on, and the winning episodes were shown the next day, there was a series of documentaries about LGBTQ people, and a number of movies. The only criticism I have is that the entire thing was about 80% gay male, but then again, when isn't media?

However, their website looked like a rainbow, they posted clips of the 10 Moments that wrote Gay TV-history (2 were lesbian, 1 trans, rest gay male - but it was written by someone who obviously knew they gay TV history, and there was even an AfterElton reference), and they kept running teasers about PrideWeek for several weeks ahead of time, and when it finally arrived, all their regular presenters sounded really genuinely into it. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but considering the way (American) TV keeps disappointing with the gay stuff, I didn't have too high hopes for this. I spend so much time on AfterEllen, sometimes I forget that this is not America. LGBTQ is a little bit easier here.

Anyway. Good on you, Kanal 5!! (eta: Aww, look how pleased Cagney looks... I love her. I should go watch some Cagney & Lacey...)