'I wasn't throwing out rainbows.' Gay Chicago firefighters, on TV and in real life, focus on their jobs
Darren Ritter didn't know he was gay when he joined Firehouse 51 in 2018.
"My character was only going to be around for a few episodes, so I don't think there was a lot of thought put into who guy was," said Daniel Kyri, the actor who plays Ritter on "Chicago Fire," now in its 13th season on NBC. "I just played the character as I saw him; I wasn't throwing out rainbows."
Lt. Paul Clark certainly knew he was gay when he started as an actual Chicago firefighter at the Wells Street Station in 1997.
"I was there about year and half, then I transferred to the West Side Douglass Park neighborhood and was there for nine years," said Clark. "That's where I cut my teeth on the job, a very busy firehouse, very poor neighborhood. I saw a little bit of everything."
Like Ritter, Clark played it low-key.
"I was never an in-your-face type of person," said Clark, 59. "I just, consciously or subconsciously, decided to let guys figure it out on their own and see how they react."
When the producers of "Chicago Fire" invited me to interview Kyri, it seemed an opportunity to compare the experiences of a fictional gay Chicago firefighter with a real one.
Firehouses are not known as monuments to tolerance; how did Clark's colleagues accept him?
"As you can imagine, the fire department and firehouses are very gossipy," said Clark. "It doesn't take long for word to spread. I let it happen organically and almost made a game out of it. However they react is on them. Either way, I wasn't going to let it affect me."
Kyri, 30, was born in Chicago and worked at the Goodman Theatre. As the show's writers got to know him, they decided to have his character come out. That intimidated Kyri.
"Being a young actor, there is a hesitation with portraying a gay character," he said. "Am I only going to be known as portraying a gay character? I do not want to be limited in my career."
This was no off-Loop black box theater, but a nationwide stage.
"Knowing what this show is," Kyri said. "A Dick Wolf procedural about first responders. Middle America is watching. Not knowing how the reception is going to be. Coming out as a gay firefighter, the first one on the show. Is the audience going to accept that? Is this going to cost me my job?"
Clark tried not to worry about his reception.
"Who knows what they were snickering about behind my back?" said Clark, who now works in the CFD headquarters. "Unless I encountered something extremely negative, to my face, I didn't really care."
Keeping his private life private turned out to be a smart strategy.
"People on the fire department first and foremost judge you on how you are as a person and firefighter," said Clark. "How well you integrate into the team, and get along with the guys at the firehouse and how well you do at fires. Everything else after that tends to be secondary."
Though there were moments.
"I remember driving up Halsted, going back to the firehouse," said Clark. "The city had just put up the pride pylons a month earlier. And this fireman was saying, 'Can you believe the city put these up for these f---ing f--s?' He said it loudly, with such disgust. My whole career I had to listen to that type of language."
When it comes to experiencing prejudice in the CFD, gays have to get in line.
"The fire department is always 20 years behind the times in terms of social mores," said Clark. "It's a tough, blue-collar environment, especially when I first came on the job. There were a lot of people who see you're a white male and assume you feel the same way about other things — racial things, women on the department, other issues. I struggle to find an example of outright bigotry toward me, but I've encountered plenty of white firefighters making disparaging remarks, moreso about Blacks or women than about gay people."
That may change as the new White House administration gives tacit permission for bigots to strut their stuff. Here, shows like "Chicago Fire" might help keep the flame of tolerance lit.
"What we do really well is representing the hero aspect of the first responder," said Kyri. "What I love about my character is, he exists. Darren Ritter is a possibility. Something I would not have been able to imagine when I was younger and coming out and dealing with what I was dealing with. I do my job, and don't really worry about what is outside my purview."