Susan Lucci has said that she cried tears of joy when she learned
of a lesbian storyline involving her television daughter on the ABC
soap All My Children.
On the show, Bianca Montgomery (played by Eden Riegel) came out
gay to her mother, Erica Kane (Lucci), in late 2000.
Appearing on cabler Bravo's Watch What Happens Live, Lucci
was asked how she felt about the storyline.
“The storyline was presented to me by our executive producer at
that time. She called me into her office and we both just sat there
with tears because it sounded like it was going to be such a great
storyline, and it was,” Lucci said. “She told me that a lot of
gay kids, and even gays in their 20s, they would rather commit
suicide than come out to their parents. And I thought to myself, 'Oh
my god, if I can be part of a storyline here that would help one
person feel good about themselves, and be who they really are, and
know that their parents can love them anyway – they just have to be
themselves. I was thrilled to be part of it.”
“That storyline really had a lot of impact, I'm very proud and
happy to say,” she added.