“I started off in this business exactly 25 years ago,” Murphy added. “At that time in the mid-90s I was told I couldn’t even have an LGBTQ character represented in my work.
Too controversial, it might turn off advertisers, etc.” A notable low-point of that time was when he was warned that having a heterosexual female character (Mary Cherry in Popular) wearing a fake fur coat was “just too gay.” As a champion of change, Ryan kept going. “I persisted and fought and had the support of so many allies and wow have things changed.