‘9-1-1: Lone Star’ fans aren’t ready to say goodbye to one of network TV’s hottest gay couples just yet
9-1-1: Lone Star would be its last, a sad announcement for both champions of LGBTQ+ representation in media and fans of campy procedural dramas.Premiering in 2020, the Ryan Murphy-created series is a spin-off of the original 9-1-1 (which now airs on ABC), following a group of first-responders as they balance their messy, complicated personal lives with jobs that find them addressing emergency after increasingly ridiculous emergency.Subscribe to our newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.Sure, Lone Star‘s penchant for melodrama and over-the-top action has made it ripe for meme fodder over the years, but it’s also been a surprisingly thoughtful showcase for multi-dimensional queer characters, having won the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Drama Series for its most recent season.For example, Brian Michael Smith has been part of the show since the very beginning playing firefighter Paul Strickland, making history as the first Black trans man in a series regular role on broadcast TV.
His status as one of Lone Star‘s most reliably hunky heroes has been a major win for trans representation.And then there’s paramedic TK Strand and police officer Carlos Reyes—played by bi actor Ronen Rubinstein & gay actor Rafael L.
