The Year in Gay Television: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Betty

So what did this past year in television hold for gay viewers? Just as with the past two years, 2007 again saw a decline in the number of GLBT characters on the broadcast networks. But even though the numbers weren’t all that impressive, we were still able to isolate a few major trends that defined the year in gay television.

Below we present our findings, and afterward provide a roadmap to the past year’s gay television milestones, conveniently carved up by programming type (Drama, Comedy, Reality, Daytime, News, Gay Networks, plus a few other categories). Memory lane has never been so camera-ready.

2007’s Two Biggest Trends: Quality not Quantity, and The Kids Are Alright

Of those representations of gay men that did exist on television this season, some were of the best ever seen on network TV. And while the number of GLBT characters dropped on the networks, the number of gay and bisexual characters on cable actually increased. However, both network and cable programs too often presented “barely there” gay characters given one or two lines each episode and, if gay viewers were lucky, one secondary storyline in one episode that usually existed to make the straight characters look tolerant and sympathetic.

By contrast, 2007 saw a boom in “gay episodes” of otherwise “straight” shows, both sitcom and drama, and the quality of the gay one-off storylines was for the most part vastly more sensitive than usual. Instead of the visiting gay character being a joke, a hustler, or a voiceless gay-bashing victim, these “very special episodes” tackled issues of marriage equality, gay adoption, gay “reparative therapy” and gay teens. In fact, many of these one-episode character arcs were far more satisfying than some of the “barely there” regular gay characters looming silently in the background waiting for a storyline.

The other defining trend of the year was the rise of television’s gay teen. Over the summer, long-running daytime drama As the World Turns made television history when its two gay male characters kissed, marking the first man-to-man kiss in the history of soaps. What’s even more groundbreaking is that the kiss occurred between two teenagers, Luke Snyder and his boyfriend Noah Mayer. Since the kiss, the young couple’s story has been handled with an impressive amount of sensitivity, and the characters are treated just like any other beleaguered soap couple.

Similarly, the Fox sitcom The War at Home took a bold step when one of its regular characters, Kenny (Rami Malek), came out of the closet, which was handled in the sitcom’s characteristically brash manner, but with an emphasis on the character’s well-being. ABC Family’s teen-targeted college comedy Greek broke new ground by including a gay African-American main character, Calvin (Paul James), and his on-again-off-again boyfriend Heath, in the central cast.

Ugly Betty’s “is-he-or-isn’t-he” showtune-loving, fashion-obsessed teen Justin Suarez (Mark Indelicato) gave mainstream audiences an effeminate and nontraditional teen who is proud and confident and whose family loves him unconditionally, delivering a beautiful message of acceptance of gay or questioning youth. (FX’s drama The Riches presented a similar situation with the family’s cross-dressing young son.)

Likewise, stand-alone episodes of Private Practice and The Closer sent clear messages of embracing and protecting gay youths. It seems obvious that television, once a format that shied from showing even adult gay relationships, is coming around and sending the right message to teens and their families about what it means to be gay or questioning.

Barbara Walters also did a very moving 20/20 special on the issues facing transgendered youth as they come out at younger and younger ages. The special was so well done it should be required viewing in every health education course.

2007 also boasted a few mini-trends worth noting. Television comedy saw a positive shift in the tone regarding gay characters and themes, ranging from Saturday Night Live to It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: rather than the joke being on the gay characters, the humor mostly lay in the cluelessness of those with sheltered or intolerant views of gays.

And the year boasted vastly increased and often improved transgender visibility with trans-inclusive shows like Ugly Betty and Dirty Sexy Money, which featured network primetime’s first transgender actress in a recurring transgender role.

One of the most welcome mini-trends this year, and especially over the last couple of months, was the inclusion of gay people not as part of a storyline, but simply as part of the world. Saturday Night Live included a gay couple in a sketch not because their being gay was part of the joke or in any way relevant, but simply because there are gay people in almost every community.

Smallville followed up when Jimmy Olsen gave a pair of concert tickets to a male colleague who thanked him enthusiastically, saying how much his boyfriend would enjoy the show. And How I Met Your Mother recently showed a male couple simply holding hands in the background of one scene.