once again. 2005. on a family show. to put that in perspective, america had only decriminalised being gay two years prior, and a lot of anti-gay laws were still in effect in the uk (weren’t all repealed until 2013)
and i really love the comment john barrowman made about this scene, which is that he made sure to kiss the doctor and rose in the exact same way, with the exact same emotion behind it. because it’s easy to get away with a bi/pan character if they’re the super flirty archetype (which he is), people will just read the same gender attraction as a “oh he’ll kiss anything” joke
but not if you do it like this. if you can’t turn one into a joke, if jack puts equal weight into both of these kisses, you’re forced to take him seriously as a queer character. and you can’t argue that it’s inappropriate for a tv show aimed at kids, because the jack/rose kiss is perfectly appropriate, and no one can deny that. doctor who’s done plenty of kisses like that before. which means the only critique someone can have with the identical jack/doctor kiss is its between two men, and people are less willing to admit their homophobia out loud like that
rtd and john barrowman were really out here doing so much for us