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The introduction of the bisexuality storyline meant that Secor had to think about the attitudes Bayliss had displayed towards homosexuality up till then. Reflecting on his character's pre-Season 6 discomfort with the subject, he says: “There's a great quote about ‘What you resist, persists'... something like that.” He laughs. “If I look back at some of the bad guys we caught that in any way had any kind of a flavor to them that wasn't strict heterosexual, it made Bayliss very uncomfortable.

“And even before we finally said ‘Hey, [the bisexuality storyline] is the way we're gonna go with this', I remember thinking ‘Well that just makes it much more interesting.' Because it means that Bayliss is uncomfortable in his own skin. It sort of fell into place for where we took him.”

The ‘Closet Cases' episode centers on Bayliss and Pembleton investigating the murder of a gay man in a suspected hate crime. Peter Gallagher's character, Chris Rawls, an openly gay restaurateur, is aiding them in the investigation. There are several mentions of the tensions existing between the gay community and the police. Another running thread throughout the episode is the potential invisibility of sexual identity - can you know whether someone else is gay?

Asking early on for indications that the murdered man was homosexual, Bayliss is told by the medical examiner: “I don't think they have a test for that, Bayliss.” Referring to the recent mugging of a gay man, and trying to decide whether the crimes might have been related, Detective Munch says “I don't think the mugger knew that [his victim was gay].” This can be seen as an underlying message to the audience. They may not know certain characters - such as Bayliss - as well as they think they know them.

Gallagher's character is polite, caring, thoughtful, and - since he is played by Peter Gallagher - attractive. He flirts gently with Bayliss, who appears taken aback but not displeased. By the end of the episode, Bayliss is accepting a dinner-date with him - despite the surprise and reservations of his partner Pembleton. The date itself is not shown onscreen however. And although a reference is made later in the season that suggests Bayliss and Rawls may have continued seeing each other, Gallagher does not appear in future episodes.

‘Closet Cases' was shown in January 1998, eight months after Ellen's big coming out episode on her sitcom (with all its resulting controversy). The show Ellen would go on to be cancelled in July of that year while Will & Grace premiered in September. Network television was willing, gingerly, to deal with gay characters. But there was an awareness of the backlash that could result from going too far, and particularly from showing actual gay relationships.

Secor recalls his surprise that the date was not shown: “I thought, well, Peter and I, or some other guy, we're gonna end up kissing, and that's gonna be really... you know, kind of interesting for me as an actor, and... where would they go with that... and that wasn't written. So I'm not sure if that was the network, or if it was some of the writers' own discomfort. Or it could have been just [an artistic decision, or due to time constraints]. You know, sometimes they don't show the actual bullet hitting the person.”

If the burgeoning attraction between Bayliss and Rawls is kept strictly at the PG level, a more sexually charged scene comes when Bayliss and Pembleton interrogate Peter Fields. Played by Brian Van Holt, Fields is a handsome, sexually ambiguous young hustler suspected of having committed a murder.

Regular viewers of Homicide will know that the detectives are used to saying whatever they have to in the interrogation room in order to get a confession. In this case, however, what Fields is goading Bayliss to admit is that he is attracted to him - the first time that Bayliss would ever have made such an admission. Not only are the detective/suspect roles reversed, but there is an ambiguity for the audience who may not realize at first that Bayliss actually means what he is saying.

Secor says: “I recall when we were doing that [scene] what occurred to me was that Bayliss knows that he's got to say that [he's attracted to Fields] in order to get the confession. And he also knows that he's attracted to him. And he can't let on to that, but he can let on in a fake way that he's attracted to him.” He laughs. “It's the beauty of the writing on that show that they just loaded [that scene] up with complex [layers].

“Peter Fields was a great-looking guy, and very cocky. And it was like he was pulling the confession out of Bayliss. [Brian Van Holt] was great in that role.”

Post-coming out, Bayliss provided a rare example of a character presented in a sustained way as bisexual. Where characters on television have had bisexual moments, it has tended to be presented as a state of transition. They may be about to come out as gay, thereby effectively invalidating previous heterosexual relationships (as with Willow on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or Jack on Dawson's Creek). Or, they may be an otherwise-straight (and usually female) regular character, who will have a one-episode gay fling which will never be mentioned again.

Bayliss, however, continued until the end of the show to be presented as dating, and open to, both genders. He had a couple of conversations where he delved into his feelings for men and women, and his attempts to balance the two. The show even took on the skepticism that exists about male bisexuality, with a couple of characters assuming that Bayliss was gay, since he was attracted to men. Homicide was unusual in exploring a specifically bisexual, as opposed to a gay male identity.

Secor says that they weren't trying or claiming to represent everyone, however:

“[We weren't] saying ‘We're going to show you exactly what a gay character is, or exactly what a bisexual character is.' We were just basically saying, ‘This is this particular character, and this is his particular way of dealing with life, and dealing with his sexuality. And he goes back and forth between men and women, based upon what his needs are, psychologically [and] physically, at the time. And could there be a character who does this rather easily?'

“I've talked to a number of people: gay, straight, bi, men, women. And there's similarities to a lot of them, but everyone is individual, so everyone goes off and does their... you know, it all happens in a different way. And that's why I thought: we can just make this up. We don't have to stick to any... Because there isn't, there was no template for a bisexual lead character on a detective series. So we could make it up how he goes back and forth, and we could make it up that he has these conversations - it seems like he's coming closer to what his nature is, and then he doesn't know. And people will buy it, because you're going to always... You're gonna always strike on someone's story.”

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