A remarkable gay storyline played out on U.S. television over the past several weeks. Viewers not only saw two gay men deeply in love express their devotion to one another, but they also saw both of those men behave in a heroic, even noble fashion.

Fans also watched as those who knew the two men expressed their admiration of them, extolling the virtues of their relationship and celebrating their love as not just something perfectly normal, but as something beautiful and admirable.

Quite frankly, it was unlike any other gay storyline seen on American television.

It also made many gay and straight viewers furious.

The show was As the World Turns, which ended its fifty-four year run last week. And as the show came to a close, wrapping up most storylines, the love story of one Luke Snyder (Van Hansis)and Dr. Reid Oliver (Eric Sheffer Stevens) was front and center for much of the time.

Unfortunately, theirs was a story that ended in tragedy when Reid was badly injured while he on a lifesaving errand for a co-worker. Knowing he was going to die, Reid insisted his heart be donated to that colleague who was waiting for a heart transplant.

Many of the final scenes between Luke and Reid were genuinely heartbreaking as Luke had to say goodbye to the man he had only recent come to love. Viewers watched as Luke grappled with the decision to follow Reid’s last wishes to donate his organs. They watched Luke’s devastation as he kissed Reid one final time before his body was taken away.

It’s hard imagining anyone watching these scenes, not only empathizing with Luke’s anguish, but possibly even seeing gay relationships differently. These weren’t two gay men, but two people, deeply in love with each other but facing unimaginable tragedy.

And it was yet another example of how ATWT was far and away the best American soap opera when it comes to gay male characters.

So why were so many gay viewers furious with the show? In part that anger stems from the fact that Reid Oliver is yet the latest in a long string of dead gay characters from the writers in Hollywood. Indeed, the past two years alone have seen dead gay or bi characters on Spartacus, Big Love, Torchwood, Battlestar Galactica, Damages, The Prisoner and Kings just to name some of the dead.

Ray Fiske decides to end it all on Damages

Anger over the death of Reid on ATWT was also certainly stoked by the fact that almost everyone else in Oakdale had a happy ending – Carly and Jack got married; Chris, his heart transplant successful, proposed to Katie, and she accepted; Bob and Kim retired to Arizona; even Lily and Holden patched things up and are starting fresh.

Meanwhile, Reid is dead, and at best, Luke came to understand how fully he loved Reid and that despite Reid’s irascible nature, he was a genuinely good man who cared deeply about other people.

As for the show’s third gay character, Noah Mayer (Jake Silbermann), who recently regained his sight – he’s still in love with Luke but by the end of the series, he’s moved to Los Angeles to pursue his film career while Luke remains alone in Oakdale dealing with grief over Reid’s death.

While Reid’s final storyline featured some of the best writing the show has offered, and Hansis and Stevens did some of their best work, there was probably no way the story could have ended this way and not generated the furious backlash it did.

Not only are many gay viewers simply sick and tired of seeing gay/bi characters die, but Luke and Reid were one of the few gay couples on television, making their loss even more stinging.

Add to that the fact that while ATWT was truly groundbreaking in its depiction of gay characters, it also always treated those gay characters with a clear double standard – Luke and Noah went months without kissing and took far longer to have sex than any straight characters, while Luke and Reid never even got to have sex – and it’s no wonder viewers had little patience for Reid’s demise, no matter how heroic or well done.

So why did ATWT’s writers choose to end Luke and Reid’s story this way? Were the writers surprised by the backlash? Would they do anything differently? Jean Passanante (pictured right), ATWT co-head writer, spoke with AfterElton to answer these questions and more.

Asked how the show settled on this particular ending, Passanante says, “In the back of our minds we thought we'll end the show with a death, a birth, a wedding, a funeral and a retirement. We were sort of trying to encapsulate what happens on a show, in a town, and in life in a short period of time.”

As for the character of Luke, the writers had specific goal in mind with his storyline. Says Passanante, “I also think that part of what the story was about was the coming-of-age of Luke. When I really pull back and think about all the things we did in the last six months of the show, we really turned Luke into a grown-up. We gave him a real responsible job and what's only the second romance in his life which he's still not quite 100% connected to, and then he kind of has this realizing that he's lost.”

Asked if she’s aware of the backlash from fans, Passanante answers emphatically that she was. “I am aware of it. I was at the Paley Center doing a panel and a couple of people kind of accosted me – this is before it even aired. … The fact that it happened to be a gay guy that died is completely arbitrary and coincidental. I'm a little stunned that there's this attitude that, you know, we can't interrupt a gay romance, as if we haven't done exactly that with straight romances.”

Was Passanante aware of the cliché of the dead queer character so prevalent in Hollywood over the years? She says no, and after it’s explained to her and how it played into the fan’s reaction to Reid’s death, she says, “No. I mean, not really. I guess that's something I hadn't thought about. Obviously I'm not going to want to participate in something that adds to a cultural ... I don't even know what the word is. A cliché or a cultural ... the word I want is like "bad thing". A denial of the lives of gay characters. I mean, that's horrible and obviously not anything like what we've tried to do on the show in the last five years.”

Passanante points out there were gay writers on the staff, some specifically working on Luke and Reid’s storyline, and that none of them ever mentioned any concerns over Reid’s death being a cliché.

She also points out the Reid wasn’t the only gay character on the show. “We haven't killed off ... I mean, we have three gay characters on the show,” says Passanante, “and one of them died, so I don't think we can be blamed for killing off the gay characters because we don't know what to do with them. We certainly have the sense that Luke will go on and he's proudly gay and openly out and everything else, and that Noah is as well, and that their lives will continue and perhaps intersect.”

Luke Snyder and Reid Oliver

Passanante also stresses that not only did she love the character of Reid, but things might have gone differently if the show hadn’t been cancelled. “Because I love the character of Reid, I knew that our audience loved the character of Reid. I love the actor, and certainly if the show went on, he would have stayed on and on and on.”

Passanante also wants fans to know that they didn’t make the decision to kill Reid lightly and never meant to hurt viewers. Says Passanante, “Never ever ever crossing anyone's mind was ‘Oh thank God, let's get rid of the gay guy before he can have a really great relationship with Luke.’ It just couldn't be further from the truth. We had a great couple there and we knew it. We were killing ourselves that the show was coming to an end because let me tell you, I would have loved to have written the hell out of that thing for you. Really.

So it wasn't something we set out to do to annihilate the gay guy, and people must know that. If it did add to a media stereotype, of course that's horrible and I do feel terrible about that, but that was certainly never the intention. I do think we got a great story out of him and he became kind of a heroic character.”

Reid Oliver on his deathbed

When it’s pointed out that the show had a clear double standard when it came to how the writers handled the gay characters, and that some of the fan anger extends from the fact Luke and Reid never had sex, Passanante says, “All I will say is that if you think that was a decision that we made just all by ourselves because we thought that was the right way to do it, you know, there are obviously pressure on us and that's just how it is. I don't mean to sound so defensive – but of course, I would have liked that, too! And if we had more time I would have been able to get to a point where they were having an active and happy sex life. But as it was, it was all kind of curtailed.”

Asked what those pressures were and if they came from the show’s producers Procter & Gamble, Passanante says only “Well, you know, I won't go into that. But I think it would be naive of any reader of your site to think that we just go off and do whatever we want. It's a television show, you know?"

In fact, Passanante adds she feels grateful they were able to do what they did. “I still feel lucky that we – and fortunate and very grateful – that with the powers that be we were able to tell the stories we were able. My goal from the beginning was always to just normalize these relationships as much as possible, you know, to make them part of the fabric of the show. Obviously there are many quibbles that we could all have, including me more than anyone, maybe, but I am just grateful we were able to accomplish that much at least.”

Asked what she’s most proud of about the character of Luke Snyder, Passanante is thoughtful and then says, “When he started out, he had such a callow, sweet, believable quality to him and he still has that, but he really showed the maturation of Luke in the course of the thing. As a character on the show, obviously his sexuality is an enormous part of it. But also, he becomes his own man and I love that about it. His sexuality is an issue, but not the only issue."

Luke Snyder

As for Luke and Noah, Passanante is also proud of their relationship. "But it was to make it [their relationship”normal, to just make it kind of- obviously in the beginning a lot of their issues were about being gay, but that really went away to some extent. Obviously it was always a factor, but the stories weren't about hate crimes or they weren't issue dramas after a while – they were romantic."

Asked if there is anything she might do differently, Passanante is thoughtful but firm. “Emotionally, watching the goodbye scenes with Reid, I thought ‘oh God, we could have had another week out of them.’ So believe me, I understand. I'm crying thinking about it. But you do make a lot of sacrifices for story and I do think we would have done the same thing if it'd been a straight guy and a straight woman, you know, in a similar kind of a romance. We probably would have played it exactly the same way. That's all I can say, and yes, it's easy for me to say from the perspective of not being gay. [This has been] very illuminating. I appreciate this conversation, it's great.”