Will & Grace stumbles with its attempt to tackle biphobia

TVLine

Thursday's episode featured Billie Lourd as Grace's niece (playing the granddaughter of her real-life late grandma Debbie Reynolds' character). In the episode, titled "Bi-Plane," Lourd's character introduces Grace and her friends to her boyfriend Trevor, who is bisexual. But Will doesn't believe in bisexuality. “Trevor, you’re not bisexual, you’re gay," Will says, telling Trevor that he's only choosing to be with a woman because of "societal pressure." The "Bi-Plane" episode "reads like a bullet point list of all the things bisexual people hear constantly—and the things that frequently keep bisexual people from coming out (and bisexuals are the least likely group to come out)," says Pilot Viruet. "Hearing over and over that bisexuality isn’t real, or that it’s just a stepping stone before inevitably identifying as gay or lesbian, can cause bisexuals to doubt their own feelings and desires. Such biphobia and bisexual erasure contributes to heightened mental health issues within the bisexual community, and plots like this don’t do anything to help. This bisexual erasure is especially hurtful when it comes from the queer community—which should, ostensibly, be the place we feel safest—which is why it’s doubly frustrating that Will & Grace is the series choosing to do this storyline."