Kerry Weaver
Dr. Kerry Weaver, portrayed by
Laura Innes, is a
fictional character on the
NBC television series ER; she first appeared as a recurring character in season 2, and became a regular cast member in season 3.
Very little of Weaver's background was revealed to the audience early on. Audiences only saw an accomplished doctor, fueled by ambition and dedicated to administrative policies. As for her personal background, only the fact she used to live in
Africa was revealed when a male African friend visited her in
Chicago.
Weaver arrived at County General as
chief resident; later became an
attending physician in the
ER; rose to Chief of Emergency Medicine; and finally promoted to Chief of Staff. Through it all, Weaver remained unfazed by her physical disability, which required her to move about the crowded and chaotic ER with a cane, and by her controversial standing among colleagues, many of whom regard her as abrasive and officious.
Seasons 2 - 6
During
ER's first six seasons, little was revealed about Weaver's background: her
sexual orientation, political beliefs, and even the precise nature of her
disability. These were closely guarded secrets for a woman who wanted to succeed professionally, but feared
discrimination. She was also unable to fully deal with her internalized
homophobia and regretted that she never knew her
birth parents.
As a result, it was difficult for anyoneâ€"the audience or any of the other charactersâ€"to really know Weaver beyond her tough and bureaucratic professionalism. In an early glimpse into her soul, Weaver defended
Jeanie Boulet (
Gloria Reuben), a physician's assistant who contracted
HIV from her
adulterous husband. Boulet fought to keep her job and dignity, while some doctors worried about the liability involved in having an HIV-positive employee in the ER.
Weaver demonstrated a great deal of compassion and a moral commitment to
civil rights, and that helped her draft an ER policy for HIV-positive employees. This storyline developed Weaver's character beyond that of a stoic, abrasive professional. In future episodes, she agreed to look the other way when
Dr. John Carter helped a teenage runaway escape her homophobic parents who sent her away to an
ex-gay camp.
In
1997, Weaver went through a brief relationship with
Ellis West (
Clancy Brown), an MD working for the Synergix Group, which was under consideration by County for a general management contract of the ER. Despite his claims to the contrary, she eventually came to the conclusion that West had begun a relationship with her in order to gain her approval of the contract.
After Carter was fired as a supervisor of a med school dorm and had no place to stay, he followed an ad, eventually leading him to Dr.Weaver's house.He began to live in her basement,which she rented out. For the first time, the audience saw the inside of her city home, and noted that she was single and independent, lived in a nice home, and had a particular taste in music. Weaver also hired a
private investigator to locate her
birth mother, an effort that initially failed and revealed Weaver's fear that she was raised by adoptive parents because her mother could not accept a
disabled daughter.
In
1999, Weaver welcomed the chance to hire Dr. Gabriel Lawrence (played by
Alan Alda), her
mentor. She initially refused to accept
Dr. Mark Greene's assertion that Lawrence was suffering from the early stages of
Alzheimer's Disease, but she ultimately faced facts and said goodbye to her
role model.
Throughout the
1990s, the series occasionally dropped hints that Weaver was a
lesbian, from her taste in music, to her house, and to her awkward rejections of advances from her male coworkers. Yet, until season seven, Weaver was simply a single and ambitious woman with a heart of gold.
Season Seven
"ER" was no stranger to realistic gay and lesbian characters as staff, patients or other characters. Dr. Maggie Doyle (
Jorja Fox) was identified as a lesbian through cryptic dialogue and a humorous scene where she takes Carter to a
shooting range and eventually hides from her jealous ex-girfriend.
Yosh Takata (
Gedde Watanabe), a male
nurse, was identified as gay in a similar fashion as Doyle, and he made occasional appearances until he left the show in
2003. Doyle and Takata never got the chance to demonstrate that they had a romantic life, however, and thus remained
asexual characters that always played second fiddle to the series' heterosexual characters. This changed when Weaver took very slow steps to
come out as a lesbian.
In mid-season, Weaver falls in love with staff
psychiatrist Kim Legaspi (
Elizabeth Mitchell), but is afraid to admit it to Legaspi or herself. While Legaspi is a lesbian and was willing to pursue a romantic relationship with Weaver, she became frustrated that Weaver is not only in the closet, but also suffered from internalized homophobia and thus the relationship gets off to a slow start. Once Weaver was able to admit to herself that she is gay, she was still paranoid about her coworkers finding out and the discriminatory consequences that may have on her career. This was despite their relationship becoming an "open secret" among most of the people in the ER.
During that story, we also learned that Kerry Weaver had been married before her career at County General started.
The first coworker Weaver came out to was the
bigoted Dr. Robert Romano, who planned to fire Legaspi over trumped up allegations that she
sexually harassed a female patient. Weaver's act of courage kept Romano from firing Legaspi, but it also emotionally drained Weaver, whose fears of discrimination ruining her career resurfaced. She was therefore unable to provide emotional support to Legaspi who kept her job, but at the cost of seeing the entrenched homophobia of the hospital administration and her own girlfriend, who remained in the closet.
Legaspi broke up with Weaver and decided to take a job offer in
San Francisco rather than face the
homophobia from Romano or the lack of emotional support she received from Weaver.
Season Eight
Weaver still has not come out to any of her coworkers, except Dr. Romano and
Dr. Luka KovaÄŤ, even though her
sexual orientation was already known to many of her coworkers. Weaver does, however, begin a new relationship with firefighter
Sandy Lopez (
Lisa Vidal) who refused to date a woman who is in the closet. Lopez forcibly outed Weaver with a passionate kiss in front of her coworkers. What followed was a groundbreaking story for
network television as the development of the romance between the two women was treated with the courtship, passion and arguments often reserved for
heterosexual couples.
Lopez said, "I did you a favor," after the kiss in the ER; a few episodes later, Weaver admitted to her that she was right. At the season's end, Weaver accepted herself as a lesbian, and became eager to combat homophobia wherever it appeared.
Season Nine
Weaver and Lopez were still together and had on-going arguments about the future of their relationship. Weaver wanted to marry Lopez and have a child, but after her
miscarriage felt Lopez should carry the child. Lopez, however, did not want to have a child, much less become
pregnant, because it would impact her firefighting career. The couple did not get much onscreen time, and Weaver is given another story thread about the consequences she faced when she failed to report a local politician tested positive for
syphilis.
Season Ten
Lopez changed her mind about having a baby, and she gave birth to baby Henry in the hospital, happy that she and Weaver started a family. Later on in the season, Lopez died in the ER from injuries she suffered while fighting a fire. Her homophobic parents swooped in to take custody of Henry and for the remainder of the season, Weaver focused on a child custody battle between herself and Lopez's parents, which she eventually wins.
Season Eleven
In the
2005 episode titled "Just As I Am," Weaver finally found her biological mother, who turned out to be a
conservative Christian. Helen Kingsley (
Frances Fisher) gave up Weaver for adoption when she was fourteen years old; she was in town for a Christ Crusade and decided to meet her daughter. When Kingsley learns her daughter is a lesbian, she and Weaver clash over
faith and
sexuality, with Weaver insisting that her mother love and accept her. Kingsley said she could love her daughter, but because she could not accept homosexuality as moral, could not accept Weaver's lifestyle. This episode not only ended the mystery behind Weaver's mother, it also revealed that Weaver walks with a cane because of
congenital hip dysplasia, a
birth defect.
Season Twelve
Though Kerry continues to play the background in most of the episodes this season, she finally goes through with surgery to fix her hip dysplasia. In the episode "No Place To Hide," Kerry walks for the first time on the series without the aid of her cane. Entering the ER without her crutch, Kerry seems pleased that none of her employees seem to notice she has lost her cane--possibly alluding to the fact that although she was disabled before, they respected her wisdom regardless.
Season Thirteen
Kerry is demoted from her position as Chief of Staff and will be now simply known as an Attending.
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Kerry Weaver Fansite
