...when it comes to man/man action on soaps.

Although a Spanish soap El Cor De La Ciutat has a boy/boy/boy love triangle with cheating and heartbreak according to the discussion over at TWoP.

Germany, meanwhile, has Alles Was Zahlt where bare-chested men are shown making out for extended periods of time. Verbotene Liebe has shown male lovers in bed together in the afterglow. Hollyoaks, a British soap, has a love story where one man is involved with another man in the priesthood so their relationship must remain secret. Apparently the first man has had a hell of a time coming out of the closet in the first place and this isn't really helping.

However, it seems that Channel 4 in Britain has a rule where if you have man/man action going on one of them must be wearing a shirt.

Okaaaay.

Meanwhile, American soap As The World Turns does have Luke and Noah and they did have a really hot kiss to declare their love but it seems that CBS has invoked some sort of kissing ban or something. Basically, Luke and Noah are fumbling around showing affection to each other without actually OMG!KISSING!! which is odd. Plus, there's a 'triangle' involved with the inclusion of a Muslim girl and... I don't watch the show but the whole thing sounded super convoluted to me in order to keep the pretty boys from kissing.

It just surprises me that Germany is the one with the man/man bare chested action going on. Maybe it shouldn't?

And now I've just discovered Lindenstraße where a gay character has "become a doctor, has had (among others) a relationship with a villain, married the love of his life when that became possible in Germany, adopted a kid, become addicted to pain killers … all the usual soapy fare … without becoming boring, but he's been nothing but gay since 1986. It can be done!"

And this show had the first gay primetime kiss in Germany in 1990. That feels recent to me because it's when I graduated high school but it was actually 18 years ago. And that kind of pains me...

But still, props to Germany!