Cable Network Roundup

HBO has reached heights no other cable network ever has when it comes to quality original programming. In the last decade, it has continually received more Emmy nominations than any other network. HBO was behind many of the best and most successful gay-themed miniseries and films, including the 1989 Academy Award-winning documentary Common Threads and Angels in America.

If Showtime (see below) is the home of the overtly gay dramatic series, then HBO pioneered the inclusion of gay characters in series about the full spectrum of human existence. The Sopranos, Oz, Six Feet Under and The Wire all feature prominent gay content or characters, while series such as Rome and Sex and the City also occasionally feature fully integrated, gay-themed story lines and characters.

If by "queer visibility" you mean "seeing gay people naked," there is no network with a higher score than Showtime. It was Showtime that, in 2000, brought America its first balls-to-the-wall gay soap opera/drama when it began airing Queer as Folk, with lots of nudity and a distinct lack of fade-to-black sex scenes. However, the less said about Queer Duck, the better. (The network also airs the Southern California lesbian take on the soap opera/drama genre The L Word.)

Showtime also ran, way back in 1984, a show called Brothers. It was the story of three brothers, one a former football player, one a construction worker, and one a Will Truman forerunner named Cliff Waters (Paul Regina), who had a Jack McFarland forerunner best friend named Donald Maulpey, played quite brilliantly by Philip Charles MacKenzie.

Queer as Folk finished its five-year run in 2005, and The L Word is currently the only queer-themed offering on Showtime. Hopefully the network will live up to its past in the future, and not find itself dropping out of the standout position.

The history of MTV and gay visibility can't be told without going back in time to 1994, when the network introduced America to Pedro Zamora.

Zamora was young, gay and HIV-positive when he was cast on the MTV reality show The Real World. The impact he had on audiences can't be overstated, and he may have done more to influence cultural perceptions of gay men and people with HIV than any educational or awareness campaign ever did — or even could.

When Zamora fell in love with Sean Sasser during the series filming, America watched and mostly applauded. The couple even exchanged vows on the show in the loft that the cast shared in San Francisco. Zamora suffered AIDS-related health problems while filming the show, but things took a sharp turn for the worse after the show wrapped. MTV created a trust in order to pay for his medical costs, as Zamora had no health insurance.

Pedro Zamora died on Nov. 11, 1994, the day after the final episode of The Real World aired. MTV broadcast a memorial to him called A Tribute to Pedro Zamora.

Subsequent seasons of The Real World, including the current edition set in Denver, have often included openly gay cast members, though not always in the most positive light. Nonetheless, the show's gay inclusiveness arguably has influenced countless numbers of young viewers to be more open-minded and tolerant.

MTV continued to raise consciousness about gay issues when, in April 2001, they ceased all regular programming for 24 hours as part of a campaign against hate crimes. The network also aired the movie Anatomy of a Hate Crime, the story of the murder of Matthew Shepard. The film ended with a black screen showing only the names of the victims of hate crimes.

That goes a long way to making queer viewers forgive the general cheesiness of other, newer gay-positive MTV shows such as Undressed, which shows gay characters along with their straight counterparts in a variety of unrealistic but nicely soundtracked situations.