When gays and lesbians turn on the television, they have plenty of options in terms of programming that tells LGBT stories … as long as they have cable. But when it comes to broadcast network television programming, the number of gay characters is nearing one of the lowest in a decade. Ironically, this follows a year when gay presence in mainstream entertainment — including films like Brokeback Mountain, Capote and even big-budget blockbusters such as Poseidon and Talladega Nights — was stronger than ever.

Ten years ago, it seemed as though great strides were being made toward equal representation for gay characters on the American small screen — strides that ultimately have led right back to the starting line.

In the 2006–07 television season, LGBT characters comprise only 1.3 percent of the broadcast network landscape, as reported by GLAAD. Arguments over the actual rate of homosexual identification in the general population aside, this is an undeniably poor representation of our country's cultural landscape.

While last season offered three broadcast programs with gay lead characters (Will & Grace, Out of Practice, Crumbs), this year features only one, The Class, and it's technically an ensemble role, not an actual lead (Matthew Rhys' role on Brothers and Sisters is classified as a supporting role, not a lead). Whereas at one time there were a half-dozen meaty queer characters on network primetime on shows ranging from Buffy to ER to It's All Relative, these days audiences looking for gay content are expected to be entertained by Drawn Together, Reno 911! and Freak Show on basic cable.

So what happened? How did gay viewers hungry to see their stories onscreen end up more or less back where they were in the mid-1990s? A look at GLAAD's diversity studies tells the story of a concept cut down in its prime — or to be more dramatic, a bright-eyed ingénue catapulted to overnight stardom and left to hold the spotlight alone. As with so many Hollywood stories, that spotlight faded all too soon.

The raw data is troubling, and not just because of the paltry numbers of gay characters on television (we're talking the low dozens in the best years), but because the data itself is difficult to navigate. Since 1996, media watchdog GLAAD has kept score of gay representation on television and is likely the best source of information available.

But while the raw numbers tell one story (from 29 network gay characters in 1996 to 15 in 2006), the underlying trends are obscured by changes in the scoring. For example, the first two years of the study included soap opera characters (four each for 1996 and 1997), while later years abandoned these sources.

Page 1 / 2 / 3 - Next