Complete Michael Delaney (Chris Bruno) Gay Teacher Story from “All My Children,” Dec. '95 - Mar. '96

ABC’s "All My Children" introduced the character Michael Delaney (played by actor Chris Bruno), a high school history teacher, in the fall of 1995. In December 1995, Michael Delaney came out to his classroom during a lecture on the Holocaust. The aftermath of that decision, public controversy in Pine Valley, was covered in episodes that aired through March 1996.

The Michael Delaney story arc, by head writer Lorraine Broderick, won an Emmy for Writing and a GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) Media Award.

According to Larry Gross, Professor of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, writing in "Up from Invisibility: Lesbians, Gay Men, and the Media in America" (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001, pgs. 219-20):

“After Billy Douglas [Ryan Phillippe, One Life to Live] left for Yale in 1993, soap-land was devoid of gay characters until [December] 1995 when Michael Delaney (Chris Bruno), the popular high school history teacher in All My Children’s Pine Valley, came out to his class during a lesson on the Holocaust and soon found himself at the center of a firestorm. The parents of some of his students go ballistic and demand that the school fire the teacher, which they do. His students rally to his defense, and he is ultimately victorious in a lawsuit and is reinstated. In the course of these events his sister is shot and killed by the homophobic brother of a student who comes out while defending the teacher—all of this on the set of a local TV talk show which is airing a program on the controversy. Michael Delaney’s coming out was modeled on the real-life experience of Missouri teacher Rodney Wilson, who came out to his students in 1994 and ended up embroiled in a public controversy. Wilson ultimately kept his job and was instrumental in establishing October as Gay History Month.”

This video is a compilation of Michael Delaney segments, some better quality than others, that aired on ABC's "All My Children" from December 1995 through March 1996: December 20, 21, 22, 27, and 28; January 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12, 15, 19, and 26; February 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 21, 22, 26, 27, and 29; and March 4, 14, 15, 20, 21, and 26.

Видео Complete Michael Delaney (Chris Bruno) Gay Teacher Story from “All My Children,” Dec. '95 - Mar. '96 канала Rodney Wilson