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Kristina continues to explore her sexual identity on “General Hospital”

This past spring, General Hospital gave Kristina Corinthos-Davis (Lexi Ainsworth) a same-sex storyline as she fell for her professor, Parker Forsythe (Ashley Jones), and attempted to seduce her in order to pass the class. Parker, a married lesbian, turned Kristina into the university, but made it clear that she had to, ethically, and their relationship could never be anything more than teacher/student. However, the tension between them was obvious, and even though Parker disappeared for a few months, she’s returned recently, and things are really developing for Kristina in discovering who she is and coming out to everyone else in her life.

Before Parker was back in the picture, Kristina accepted a date from Aaron, a nice enough guy who is aesthetically pleasing by conventional standards. Kristina’s sister, Molly, is confused when she sees Kristina with a man, but Kristina explains that her identity is not set just yet.

“I’m allowed to date guys and girls,” Kristina said. “I’m figuring it out as I go!”

But after a nice date with Aaron, Kristina is calling Parker, wanting nothing more than to talk with her. Aaron overhears, though, and Kristina plays the pronoun game yet again, letting Aaron believe Parker is someone from her past—specifically a guy. He’s not jealous, though; he still talks with his ex-girlfriend. He gets it. He offers her a ride home, but Kristina wants to go home alone.

On their next date, Kristina and Aaron have sex, but the morning after, Aaron is a little perturbed.

“When you were sleeping I moved hair out of your face, and you called me Parker,” he said, Kristina still in his bedsheets. She explains it must have been a dream, and then explains “Parker was my professor; never my ex. .. I wanted to be more than Parker’s student.” Aaron is, yet again, fine with this. He seems to like Kristina, although he gets most excited when he’s talking about how much he loves her dad Sonny’s coffee company. Kristina gets him a job with her dad so he can fully integrate himself into her life while she’s still figuring out exactly how she feels about him.

Meanwhile, Kristina’s mom is out on bail (long story!) and is also curious as to why her daughter is dating a guy. She warns both Kristina and Molly that you can’t change people, and they can’t change you either. “If something’s wrong from the beginning, it will stay wrong, so just walk away,” she said. “In fact, you don’t walk, you run.”

Kristina tells her mom that Parker is in town to give a guest lecture at a conference. “Are you going to see her?” her mom asks. “I’m dying to,” Kristina said.

Cut to Kristina showing up outside of Parker’s hotel room, asking if she can come in. Parker allows it, hesitantly, hoping to give Kristina the closure she seeks. But as Kristina mentions she’s dating a guy, they get into a conversation about how much he knows about Kristina’s sexuality and Parker. Then they take each other’s hands, and Kristina notices Parker’s wedding ring is MIA. Parker comes clean: Her marriage is over.

This gives them the green light. Now that Kristina is no longer Parker’s student, and Parker is separated from her wife, they give in and have sex–the first time Kristina has ever had sex with a woman. And credit goes to General Hospital for the tasteful sex scene that is given the same weight as her sex scene with Aaron.

In the morning, Parker isn’t sure about what happened. She’s knows how intense it can be to sleep with a woman for the first time. But Kristina is blissfully happy, saying it was the best night of her life. She says she finally knows what it’s like to make love and not have sex. I find myself continually impressed with how these conversations unfold between Kristina and Parker, and how Parker is very aware of being an older and former authority figure over Kristina, which isn’t sitting well with her. After the conference, she tells Kristina, she has to go back to her life, and Kristina can’t come with her. Parker doesn’t want to cloud how Kristina defines herself, which is something she has to figure out on her own, and not based on her relationship to and with Parker.

“Maybe I’m just not into labels,” Kristina offered.

“You can’t embrace labels if you’re avoiding answering the question for yourself,” Parker said.

Kristina avoids the topic by telling Parker how distracting she has always been to her. She could never concentrate in class, which led to her failing and attempted seduction. Parker is flattered by this, but she has to go to the conference. She allows Kristina to stay in her room, waiting for her, and they kiss goodbye….just as Sonny rounds the corner and watches it all go down. He hides until Parker leaves and then knocks on Kristina’s door.

Kristina answers, coming up with an excuse about seeing an old college friend for room service (which she adorably ordered for Parker).

“I was in the hall, and I saw you kissing a woman,” Sonny said, and then it all comes out. Kristina tells her dad it was Parker, whom he only knows as the professor who turned her into the university. He wants to know why she didn’t just tell him the truth and is hurt her mom knows, but that no one told him anything. He explains how he’s known plenty of gay men in his life (he used to go “to clubs”), and when Kristina asks, tearfully, if he could accept a gay daughter, he tells her, “You are my daughter, no question. No matter what.” It’s an emotional, endearing moment, one that relieved viewers about any trepidation they might have had about Sonny’s possible homophobia.

And while Kristina’s mom is not homophobic, she doesn’t like that her daughter didn’t come home the night before and wants to know why Parker is showing up at the family coffee shop. She tells Parker to leave Kristina alone; that she should know better as her former teacher and mentor. This is everything Parker has hated to think of herself and the situation. She doesn’t want to be taking advantage of Kristina, no matter how much Kristina insists it was she who sought Parker out. There is a decidedly large age difference, but not an illegal one. It’s enough for me that Parker is aware of all of the red flags and wants to make sure that there aren’t lines crossed, and they waited to do anything once they were no longer teacher/student, and she was no longer involved with her wife.

But Parker is affected by what Kristina’s mom says and writes Kristina a Dear John letter….which she then passes along to Aaron, who is working at the coffee shop. He brings it to Kristina, and she reads it on the spot. The letter, she says, visibly upset, is from Parker.

“But the letter is from a woman,” Aaron said. And this time, Kristina stays honest. Aaron admits they aren’t exclusive so he can’t be upset about that, but he does want to know if she’s using him as beard for her parents. But the thing is, she’s not. Her parents are now fully on board with her being queer, however she decides to eventually identify, and they are more concerned about her having a relationship with a rebounding former teacher who got her kicked out of school. Kristina tells Aaron she truly does like him and thinks they could have something together, but it’s still so new, and she’s still on, as Parker puts it, her journey.

Considering soap operas are ripe with illicit relationships, the handling of the Parker/Kristina storyline is surprisingly full of conversations that are usually relegated to very special episodes, or drawn out in long, painful homophobic reactions from family and friends. The storyline has definitely been a slow burn, but every unpredictable reveal has been worth tuning in for, and something even non-soap fans could find something in, especially those who are going through the same self-discovery Kristina is. Parker’s being self-aware is also a change from the typical teacher/student trope, where the teachers are usually less concerned about what the consequences could be for themselves, much less their younger lover.

Is Kristina gay? Is she bi? She’s definitely not straight; this is not “a phase” for her, and she has the support of everyone in her life that matters. Her family supports her and wants the best for her, even though her mom is meddling in a way that can only create more drama for us to devour. What’s made clear about her relationship with Aaron is that it’s new; she doesn’t know him like she knows Parker. It has nothing to do with gender—it has to do with attraction and connection, and her heart is still with Parker.

Will Kristina find out her mom was behind Parker’s goodbye? Will Parker return to reunite with Kristina anyway? Will we ever meet Parker’s soon-to-be ex-wife? Well, I need to know the answers to these things, so I guess I’m sucked in. Your move, General Hospital.

General Hospital airs Monday through Friday on ABC.

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