"Newsweek" Reporter Suggest Effeminate Men on TV Hurting Gay Rights

Today Newsweek posted an article by reporter Ramin Setoodeh titled "Kings of Queens: Gays on TV once helped promote tolerance. Now they may be hurting it." 

In all honestly, it's one of the worst articles about the subject that I've ever read. 

The gist of the piece? Effeminate gay characters on television are possibly responsible for the defeat of gay rights in Maine, California and a general decrease in tolerance toward the GLBT community. 

Setoodeh finds Glee's Kurt Hummel especially troubling with his "...fluffy Alexander McQueen sweaters and sings notes high enough to make your fillings hurt."

Kurt isn't the only effeminate gay guy on Setoodeh's radar. He also mentions Marc from Ugly Betty, Lloyd from Entourage, Cameron and Mitchell from Modern Family and then moves on to reality television citing the "dozens of squealing contestants on Project Runway." Even Adam Lambert gets a mention as someone potentially troublesome for the gay community. 

Marc from Ugly Betty, Christian Siriano from Project Runway, Lloyd from Entourage

Setoodeh notes a recent survey by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation that found amongst those folks who say their feelings about gays and lesbians have improved over the past five years, nearly one third say it's at least partly due to the gay characters they saw on TV.

But, wonders Setoodeh, might that not be changing now that there are so many Kurt Hummels and Christian Sirianos on our television screens? Is that why voters in Maine voted to repeal gay marriage there?

Where to start?

First of all, Setoodeh seems to be overloooking a lot of gay characters currently on TV. In the past year alone, American audiences have been introduced to a gay cop on Southland, a gay teen on United States of Tara, a gay paramedic on Trauma, another gay cop on One Life to Live, and a gay prince on Kings, none of whom fit the stereotypes troubling Setoodeh. (Granted, three of these programs have been canceled — with Southland then getting picked up by another network — but even those characters were still seen by millions of people.)

Other gay characters that shouldn't "trouble" Setoodeh that are currently being watched in American homes include the bisexual Captain Jack on Torchwood, gay fraternity brother Calvin on Greek, Kevin and Scotty on Brothers & Sisters, Luke and Noah on As the World Turns and, well, the list goes on.

Calvin from Greek, Officer Cooper from Southland, Prince Jack from Kings