"[8] She has been the subject and study of various academic works, said to have inspired soap opera writers to begin with the scripting of sexual identities of tortured teen characters,[9] and is a heroine.

[5] All My Children creator Agnes Nixon cites that scripting Bianca as a lesbian was in part inspired by Chaz Bono's memoir Family Outing.

She wanted to showcase the thought process and actions "most parents" have upon finding out that their child is gay: "I think the right word for Erica's reaction is denial," said Nixon.

[15] Nixon acknowledged that the show's original story featuring lesbian characters, which was broadcast in 1983, which lasted two months, did not work out as well at the time as she had hoped, and wanted to try again.

The revelation was easily envisioned by the sisters as a storyline from a soap opera due to Riegel having told Tatiana Bianca's secret on the day of their father's third wedding.

[14] A year and a half after Bianca's "coming out" as a lesbian, Riegel and Tatiana felt that the show had done "a great job" in telling the story of a gay woman and her struggles.

[14] In a Variety magazine interview, Julie Hanan Carruthers, executive producer of the show, spoke of Bianca's character development.

Megan McTavish, the show's head writer at the time, said she was "most astonished that fans elevated Bianca into one of the serial's 'tent poles' — soap parlance for characters who hold enormous sway with viewers".

"[7] In a 2007 interview with TV Guide, former head writers of the series, James Harmon Brown and Barbara Esensten, stated that since Riegel's portrayal, the character is simply too iconic to ever recast.

In a March 30, 2010 interview with Soap Opera Digest, Riegel explained why she decided to move on from the character: I had tried to make it work with All My Children.

However, by that time Erica is having a secret affair with Travis' brother Jackson, and as soon as Bianca catches them kissing, she sets her "Uncle Jack" doll on fire and ends up burning the house down.

In August 1994, Bianca comes to Pine Valley again following the death of Mona Kane Tyler, so overwhelmed by her loss and furious that she did not get to spend much time with her grandmother.

Sixteen-year-old Bianca (her birth date 1984 now revised by the series) returns home in 2000, stunning her mother, Erica, by confessing that she is in a lesbian relationship with a girl named Sarah.

She internalizes her rage and only tells Maggie, but eventually the entire town of Pine Valley learns the truth, which brings Bianca and her estranged mother closer.

Bianca and Kendall's ruse is aided by Dr. David Hayward, Ryan Lavery, Lena, Maggie, Reggie Montgomery, and Jackson.

During the commotion, Paul secretly kidnaps Babe's son and gives her Miranda instead, whilst claiming to Bianca that her daughter perished in a helicopter crash, which he had staged.

When Bianca discovers the truth, she attempts to reclaim her daughter, but falls from a balcony during a scuffle with Miranda's acting father, JR Chandler, and ends up comatose.

Family problems resurface due to Bianca's sexuality, but this time from her conservative former stepmother Barbara, who denounces her lifestyle, but eventually sees the error of her ways.

On October 17, 2008, Zach Slater is in the process of looking for wife Kendall buried under rubble due to a tornado having just struck Pine Valley.

However, when Reese sends her lawyer and nanny to Pine Valley in her place with tickets for Miranda and Gabrielle to come back for spring break, Bianca realizes that Marissa's fears may not be completely unfounded.

[11] AfterElton.com relayed that the viewing demographic for soap operas continues to grow and diversify, further clarifying, "The popularity of the Bianca storyline on All My Children was proof that audiences were more than ready for a lesbian relationship, and his assessment of women's romantic fantasies in regards to gay male characters may prove to be equally outdated.

"[31] Bianca's popularity extended to her romances, as well as to other perceived possibilities; this was evident through the character's relationships with Maggie Stone, Lena Kundera, and Babe Carey.

[32] ...As Americans were choosing sides over gay marriage and arguing about campaign references to Vice President Dick Cheney's openly gay daughter, there was one concern quietly uniting people across the ideological spectrum: Bianca Montgomery deserved to get her baby back.In 2004, with Bianca's rape having left her subsequently pregnant with Michael's child, and the baby switch storyline having robbed her of her daughter, viewers were infuriated by what they felt was the pain the character had endured within the year.

The amount of mail sent to the ABC studios requesting and demanding that Bianca's baby be returned to her was cited as astounding for a fictional character, especially one of daytime — and who is also gay: "Bianca's sexuality did not seem to matter to the thousands of fans who wrote letters, e-mail messages, and blog entries insisting that the only safe place for the baby was back in the arms of Pine Valley's one known lesbian.

[7] Brian Frons, president of ABC Daytime, stated:To have someone like Bianca who is openly gay, a mother, proud of who she is, who has fallen in love with another woman, who is taking heroic action — to have the audience embrace this character fully is pretty incredible.

[38] When GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) was asked by Metro Weekly why GLAAD sent out an action alert voicing their concern over the rape of Bianca, but two days later sent out another release which seemed to support how the storyline was told, Joan M. Garry, executive director of the organization, responded that they had "some concerns" about [the storyline] and "that the broader context of the [daytime television] genre kind of needs to be taken into account.

Combine that with conversations that we have with folks that are actually producing the images and we really try to work our way through those different opinions and shape a position we think makes sense.

[43] They asserted that, as a lesbian, it is illogical for Bianca to be intensely romantically attracted to a transgender woman who is still of the male form, and that even more stressing was that the show conveyed the story as soul-love (the belief that sexual orientation can be negated if you simply love that person's soul).

[41] Viewers titled the couple "Barf" (for Bianca and Zarf), and TV Guide, which reported the nickname, named the storyline one of the worst of 2007.

[42] The Wow Report delivered a scathing remark when they referred to Zarf as a drag queen and commented on their disbelief that All My Children was winning GLAAD awards.