Rickie Vasquez
Age: 15
- Bisexual/comes out as gay
- Beaten by Uncle/thrown out of house
- Accepted by close friends/Major homophobia and bullying at school
- Crushes on people but no relationships
In 1994, a new ABC was launched at the 14-25 age bracket that presented a startlingly true picture of the life of a 15 year old suburban teenaged girl. It was called "My So Called Life," and although it only lasted one season, it maintains a group of loyal fans who fougth the show's cancellation at the time and still marvel over its brief life. It has been said that MSCL was the inspiration for many of the other teen dramas that followed in primetime TV, but none has been so honest in dealing with issues from love, to sex, to school violence, to homosexuality.
MSCL followed Angela Chase, a 15-year-old girl played by Claire Danes, who was a Sophomore in High School in the midst of finding herself. That included finding a new best friend in Rayanne Graff, a class-skipping bad girl with an alcohol and drug problem. Along with Rayanne came Rickie Vasquez, a bisexual mixed-race (Hispanic and Black) teen with an affinity for wearing eyeliner and hanging out with Angela and Rayanne in the girl's bathroom. Although his closest friends were accepting of his bisexuality, he was bullied physically and emotionally at school and even considered carrying a gun to protect himself.
His family life was tumuluous, culminating in the Christmas episode where he was beaten by his Uncle, his only father-figure, and thrown out of the house. He wandered the streets for most of the episode until he wastaken in by a closeted gay teacher from the school.
Although he was never in a relationship during the show's run, he had a brief crush on the show's trubled heartthrob, Jordan Catalano, and an artsy fellow student who painted his own shoes, named Corey. Although it was insinuated that Corey could be gay, the relationship never materialized. A girl named Delia had a crush on Rickie that forced him into eventually coming out as gay, even though he didn't want to hurt her.
Rickie appeared in the same season that MTV's Real World featured the young, HIV-positive gay man, Pedro Zamora, who was a major force in bringing AIDS awareness and tolerance of homosexuality to the public through speaking about his own experiences. He died the next year, but this coupled with the Rickie character on MSCL, brought major attention to Gay Rights issues as well as Latino (minority) and teen issues. Rickie was the first central teen character on network television to take on these issues, preceded only by a summer-long storyline for a gay teen on One Life to Live. (See Recurring Roles page for details.)
Wilson Cruz is an openly gay actor who, since MSCL, has guest starred on episodes of Party of Five, and Ally McBeal as a drag queen, and appeared as Angel in LA and on Broadway in Rent. Much of the press surrounding his character in 1994 and 1995 was centered around the admitted similarities between he and his character on the show. "I can play him as honestly as I can to what I went through," he said. "I hope I can help kids see that they're not the only ones in the world."
