Orange is the New Black writer: Show helped me realise I’m gay
A writer for Orange is the New Black has said that the show helped her realise she was gay, months after getting married to a man.
The Netflix show follows main character Piper, sent to prison on an old drugs charge after marrying husband Larry, only to rekindle an affair with former girlfriend Alex.
Lauren Morelli, one of the show’s writers, wrote in an article for PolicyMic: “[From my] first episode of Orange, my life fell into a parallel rhythm with Piper’s story in a way that went from interesting to terrifying in a matter of months”.
“The sound stage for Orange, where we proudly employ what has to be at least 64% of lesbians in the New York City metro area, is not a place where you can shy away from women or sexuality.
“As we started to shape our characters and debate fictional Piper’s ‘true’ sexuality that first season, we engaged in long discussions about sex, gender and our own experiences.
“I was finally forced to consider a question that had never, ever occurred to me before: Holy shit, am I gay?
“While it certainly would have been disorienting to begin to question my sexuality after three decades of knowing myself, it was particularly blinding because I’d gotten married only a few months before.
“It’s now a punch in the gut every time I have to say, ‘I’m getting divorced because I’m gay’. It’s a sentence I’ve said approximately 5,223 times in the last six months.
“I am now out to my family, my friends and most of my co-workers on Orange.
“Now, when I am in the writers’ room or on set, I no longer feel like I am stuck in the middle of two truths.
“I belong because my own narrative fits in alongside the fictional stories that we are telling on the show: stories of people finding themselves, of difficult paths and of redemption.”
