It’s very rare that a mainstream TV show has a lesbian storyline that you actually care about.  Well, it’s highly unusual for me anyway!  I normally find the gay characters that come in and out of weekly dramas to be two-dimensional at best and the stories they are in to be weak with very little chemistry.  It’s for all of those reason and more that I was glued to my TV every Thursday for weeks to see the story of Dr. Erica Hahn and Dr Callie Torres on Grey’s anatomy unfold.  This “coming-out story” was really well written, fun and it made you really care about the characters – almost unique to my mind.  That was until season 5 when the writer was either changed or had some kind of writters block.

Basically, for those who missed it, Dr Hahn is the head of cardiothoracics, she’s one of those characters that you just love.  She’s the top in her field and married to her job – you know the type.Most of the characters in the show are utterly intimidated by her and think she’s a total b*tch but her scenes are always funny and Brooke Smith plays her to perfection.  Dr Torres (Sara Ramirez) is a  Orthopedic resident who is funny, lively and loved by everyone.

They aren’t two characters you’d put together usually but the formation of their friendship and the development of their feelings for one another was done brilliantly, even this sarcastic lesbian was all loved up just watching it.

Don’t get me wrong, the writing had flaws, like Callie constantly going to her friend Mark for advice on sleeping with women, but I was still hooked.  I loved the part when Erica finally said she was gay and was totally chuffed with herself…

So I was horrified beyond belief when I read that Brooke Smith (Dr Hahn) had been “fired” from the show.  Not only did they end this relationship and cancel the best character in the show but they did it so badly I’m still lost for words.  She just left – walked away – totally out of character -  I’m raggin’!!!!!!!!!!!

The series creator,Shonda Rhimes, has said:

“Brooke Smith was obviously not fired for playing a lesbian. Clearly it’s not an issue as we have a lesbian character on the show, Calliope Torres. Sara Ramirez is an incredible comedic and dramatic actress and we wanted to be able to play up her magic.” She adds, “Unfortunately, we did not find that the magic and chemistry with Brooke’s character would sustain in the long run. The impact of the Callie/Erica relationship will be felt and played out in a story for Callie.

What a load of old rubbish.  There’s an interesting interview with Smith here, in which she says

I don’t know for sure, but it definitely seemed like [Shonda's] hands were tied. That was just my gut.

So it’s ABC that I have my rage pointed squarely at, I even emailed them a complaint, even though I know no one will read it, I just felt compelled to.

What makes it even worse is that they are keeping Callie “gay” and have her with another female doc now, so why cut out Erica?  Don’t give me crap about “we did not find that the magic and chemistry with Brooke’s character would sustain in the long run”, she was the best thing about the show.

If ABC read lesbian webpages they’d see that us laserbeams have been obsessing about our ‘doctor mc steamy’ for a long time now, then they make her gay for us, then they cut her – raggin’!!!!!!!!!!!

This blog probably doesn’t make much sense since my glasses are steaming with anger so do be patient with my little rant – I need to get this off my chest.

The star of the show Patrick Dempsey was on Ellen after all this happened and when Ellen asked him about it he said that the network had given him an answer to say if she asked him!!!  Fair play to him for letting that be known.

Have you ever been so annoyed at a TV show that you stopped watching it?  Well I haven’t seen an episode of Grey’s Anatomy since Brooke Smith’s last and I don’t plan to.  Let me take this opportunity to thank all the fan fiction writers out there who have gotten me through this tough time .  For those of us who saw the character development in the show, hers a little reminder…

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