The AfterElton.com 2007 Visibility Awards

Honorable Mention:

Brothers & Sisters (ABC)

The only network show that could conceivably challenge Ugly Betty for this particular crown is Brothers & Sisters, ABC’s nighttime sudser. Starring Matthew Rhys as Kevin Walker, the oh-so-love challenged gay attorney, B&S also managed to get even more gay in its second season by confirming that Kevin’s uncle Saul (Ron Rifkin) is also a gay man, albeit one struggling with his sexuality.

And before breaking for the Christmas holidays, the show established what is likely to be the first gay love triangle on network television when Kevin dumped his current boyfriend, Jason McCallister (Eric Winter) for former flame Scotty Wandell (Luke MacFarlane).

As hard as it is to believe, this year alone Brothers & Sisters featured more regularly occurring characters than the other networks combined.

Best Scripted Cable Series Featuring a Regular Gay Character

Greek (ABC Family)

As we noted in The Year of Gay TV, one of the major trends on television this year was including more queer teens, ranging from Luke and Noah on As the World Turns to the is-he-or-isn’t-he Justin Suarez on Ugly Betty to Sam Malloy (Aidan Mitchell) on FX’s The Riches.

But the single best gay teen character on cable this year has to be Calvin (Paul James) on ABC Family’s college drama Greek. Not only is Calvin one of the few gay African-American characters on television, he’s also one of the few that is unabashedly a jock. And in an interesting twist, while Calvin was out in high school, he initially chooses to not be out at college as he had grown tired of being known as “the gay kid.”

But being semi-closeted doesn’t mean being asexual and Calvin hooks up with another frat boy named Heath. Calvin not only eventually comes out to a few friends, but is inadvertently outed to his fraternity, who reject him. No doubt the second season will see that storyline develop and gay viewers will continue to enjoy this thoughtful depiction of being gay in college. And the added bonus? It's on the network formerly best known as the home of the 700 Club.