Matt Baume: The Best Coming-Out Scenes in Sitcom History

Join local superstar writer Matt Baume for a special Pride deep dive into The Best Coming-Out Scenes in Sitcom History (and one or two of the worst)!

Copies of his book Hi Honey, I'm Homo! will be available for purchase.

Come on in for a history of coming-out! Whether it's with awkward confessions on Frasier, tested friendships on The Golden Girls, bumbling bigots on All in the Family, or post-coital clarity on Schitt's Creek, sitcoms have tackled LGBTQ+ stories from every conceivable angle. Along the way, they've taught audiences what to expect from a coming-out conversation ... and that it doesn't always have to be so serious. We'll take a tour of how coming-out scenes have evolved alongside real-life queer liberation, and how television writers tackled the added challenge of making tough conversations funny.

Matt Baume is a writer, podcaster, and video-maker based in Seattle whose work focuses on queer culture, geeks, and all things strange and wonderful. He is the creator of the queer interview show The Sewers of Paris, the YouTube pop culture series Culture Cruise, and the LGBTQ news shows Weekly Debrief and Marriage News Watch. He’s co creator of the comedy podcast and live show Queens of Adventure, featuring drag queens playing Dungeons & Dragons. His book, Defining Marriage, chronicles the personal stories of people who fought for marriage equality over the last forty years. He was nominated for a GLAAD award for journalism, and his work has been recognized by the New York Times as “thoughtful and thorough … informative and funny,” and he was highlighted by Forbes magazine. After he appeared as a pop culture critic in the Showgirls documentary You Don’t Nomi, Forbes called his observations on the film “potentially intriguing.” You can find his reporting via outlets that include Rolling Stone, Vice Magazine, Slate, The Advocate, The Stranger, and NPR.