ABC Family made history when two 13-year-old characters shared a same-sex kiss on the show "The Fosters." However, with broken ground came angry tweets from those who disapproved of the scene.
"The Fosters," which is currently in its second season, focuses on the story of a lesbian couple and their family of biological and fostered children. Last week, friends Jude (Hayden Byerly, 14) and Connor (Gavin MacIntosh, 15) kissed after a build-up around their blossoming relationship. It was the youngest gay kiss in TV history. While some were thrilled with the progressive and powerful message, others took to Twitter and bashed the show, calling it a "sin" and "cultural suicide."
Show co-creators Peter Paige and Bradley Bredeweg defended the scene while speaking with TheWrap.
"When people question the scene my response has been: 'Everyone has a first kiss and you remember it. How old were you?' Ninety percent of people who have an answer come back and say, 'I was 12, 13 and 14 years old,' and I say, 'Exactly. It was time to see this, time to put this up for the world,'" Bredeweg said. "Then people understand, they’re able to wrap their heads around it."
"I would say its very easy to balk at or sensationalize the headline, but its hard to deny the truth or the integrity of the whole story," Paige added. "We are here to tell the true stories of what it is to grow up and these are true stories of what it is to grow up as a young, potentially gay person. It’s the truth and that’s all."
Although he admitted his hesitation as a straight male, Byerly told the Daily Beast he came to terms with filming the gay kiss because of the impact it could have for viewers of the show, particularly for the LGBT community.
"It was very important to portray a character that is going through a struggle that so many people go through," he said. "I want people to watch the show and see the struggle that Jude goes though and feel more comfortable about themselves; to feel like it doesn’t matter whether you are gay or straight or bisexual or transgender or whatever you are, that you are happy with who you are, and that you are accepting of yourself. My hope is that people watch the scene and they are happy to see something on television that represents them."
Watch the scene from "The Fosters" below.
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