Indeed, it has been noted that, throughout the soap's early years, Dot was portrayed as a "lovable bigot", prejudiced against her neighbours and only happy when others were not. During the 1980s, Dot was shown to exhibit both racism and homophobia to members of the Walford community. In 1987, Dot was shown to respond negatively to Colin Russell (Michael Cashman) upon learning he was gay, reacting in "horror and ignorant self-righteousness" and spreading rumours that Colin had AIDS. According to Gary Loach from GaydarNation, Dot was being used by the programme makers to expose the bigotry of the "moral majority" in the real world following a public and media backlash over "EastEnders"' screening of its first homosexual kiss. However, while Dot has portrayed bigotry, author Anthony Slide has noted that the character can typically be "relied upon to drop her prejudices – she learned to accept both blacks and homosexuals in Albert Square."