TV's Most Influential Gay Male Sex Scenes

9. Brothers & Sisters: Kevin and Scotty

Brothers & Sisters marks the first time we've seen a sexually active gay character (Kevin Walker, played by Matthew Rhys) given full romantic parity on a drama on broadcast TV, but it is something we've seen often on cable. So the truth is, if Brothers & Sisters were on cable instead of ABC, it probably wouldn't be on this list.

But this show is on ABC, which is why, when watching "Date Night," the fifth episode of the series, gay and straight viewers took pointed notice when Scotty and Kevin (Luke MacFarlane) shared a steamy kiss that was clearly a prelude to sex. It had been so long since gay viewers had seen gay characters on network television behaving in any realistically sexual way that the internet buzzed with the news the next day.

Like its broadcast television forerunner thirtysomething, Brothers & Sisters only shows implied gay sex. (To be fair, the show doesn't show a whole lot of heterosexual sex, either.) On the other hand, unlike Russell and Peter on thirtysomething , Kevin is a regular member of the cast and actually has a sex life. When Kevin fell in love with closeted actor Chad Barry (Jason Lewis), viewers were treated to several scenes of the two men falling into bed together or waking up together, all handled refreshingly matter-of-factly.

Hotness Rating: 4/10
Romance Rating: 7/10
Significance Rating: 8/10

10. ER: Chaz Pratt and friend

This scene from the 13th-season episode "Reason to Believe" is certainly a first for NBC, which managed to get us through eight seasons of Will and Grace without showing any actual sex.

ER's Dr. Gregory Pratt (Mekhi Phifer) comes home and finds his brother Chaz (Sam Jones III), naked and doing the wild thing in the shower with a friend. Given the steamy sex scenes typical of ER 's straight characters, this single scene marked a turning point in the depiction of gay male sexuality on the show.

The story line was introduced last November and just got picked up again recently, so here's to more of Pratt's gay brother and broadcast television's first gay shower sex scene.

Hotness Rating: 4/10
Romance Rating: 2/10
Significance Rating: 8/10

11. Oz: Beecher and Keller

HBO's Oz barely made it onto this list — not because Toby Beecher (Lee Tergesen) and Chris Keller (Christopher Meloni) , the "it" couple of the show, didn't have sex. They did. Not because they didn't love each other. They did. Not because people don't find the couple hot. They do.

No, it's because somehow on this show, even though there's kissing and nudity and violence and suffering and even true love, there don't seem to be any actual sex scenes, not even of the fade-to-black variety. Nonetheless, what is shown is groundbreaking simply for depicting a gay relationship that goes so far beyond the relatively happy (for television), normal couples usually depicted on sitcoms and dramas. These are seriously damaged, messed-up men who make for riveting watching.

During the course of their relationship, there’s an offer of anal sex as a form of apology, and the famous laundry room kiss, neither of which is, precisely, a sex scene. Still, within the genre of the prison drama, and with all its limitations as far as storylines go, this show does go beyond implied sex, even though it doesn’t quite show it. Proving that, Showtime’s optimistic 2000 proclamation notwithstanding, there are definitely still limits.

Hotness Rating: 4/10
Romance Rating: 4/10
Significance Rating: 7/10