Which is more unlikely in this day and age: a female President of the United States or HIV-phobia in the White House?

Regardless of what any of us would like the answer to be, the latest episode of ABC's Commander in Chief makes a juicy subplot out of the latter, while the former is the central premise of the show.

Accidental president Mackenzie Allen (Geena Davis) had been Vice President when the elected commander in chief died. She succeeded him despite demands, even from the dying President himself, for her resignation. Now in office, she has been struggling to retain her seat despite malicious intent from the would-be-President/Speaker of the House who has been lurking in wait.

Since the season began there had been rumors that someone on Commander in Chief was going to come out—with speculation (perhaps wishful thinking?) that it would be the president's studly young son Horace (Matt Lante).

But ABC recently confirmed that the guest of honor would be Special Assistant to the President Vince Taylor (Anthony Azizi), and this week's episode featured his outing/coming-out as the main subplot. But even more predictable than this pre-announced turn of events was the fact that a dirt-digging Republican opponent within Allen's administration—said Speaker of the House Nathan Templeton (Donald Sutherland)—would want to use that information to his advantage.

What was unexpected was that the character's coming-out would take second stage to the revelation that he is HIV-positive.

President Allen learns both facts simultaneously when Chief of Staff Jim Gardner (Harry Lennix) comes to her with the information, hoping to tip off the president before Templeton is able to leak the information. Allen's first reaction to the news is to ask whether Vince is okay, and Jim assures her that he has been stable and on medication for several years.

But once reassured that Vince is in otherwise good health, Allen unleashes her outrage that he would keep such potentially damaging information from her. Feeling deceived, she confronts Vince, who explains that he hadn't realized a disclosure was in order.

Vince's only response to Allen's insistence that she “won't abide being kept in the dark” is that he thought it was “a private matter.” Allen counters that it's hard to have a private life when you answer to several million people. Both of them sidestep the issue of sexual orientation only being contemptuously designated as “private” when that orientation isn't straight and therefore dominant.

Allen chides Vince for not even being able to say the word “gay” when he confirms the rumor. When she points out that he seems to have less difficulty posing a security risk to her administration, he assures her he would sooner resign that present any type of security risk, and she jumps the gun and tells him “I accept.” She then mutters angrily that the last thing she needs now is “public embarrassment,” and it's still unclear whether all of this fuss is over his HIV status or his being gay.

It's frustrating to see Vince so, well, resigned in his forced resignation. He is positively sheepish and musters no self-defensive effort. And it's irritating to see him equally spineless when Allen asks him to stay once she realizes she can't do without him.

As he decides to resume his post and come out about his sexual orientation and his HIV status before the information can be leaked, Vince worries that people associate being positive with weakness. Allen assures him that “They'll only think that if you quit.” What could be an empowering step for him is co-opted by his boss.

As the ensuing press conference makes clear, Vince's HIV status is far juicier material than his gayness. Cartoonishly ignorant journalists fire off questions about whether his close proximity to the president poses a threat to her health, and call his mental capabilities into question with speculation about whether HIV “thins out the brain.” That his sexual orientation merits so little reaction would almost seem like a positive sign, if not for the fact that it is simply being preempted by an overreaction to his HIV status.

But Vince's moment in the spotlight—his chance, as he puts it, to make someone out there less afraid to come forward like he has—is cut short when Allen swoops in and steals the show with her magnanimity. She calls him courageous and uses the occasion to champion her dedication to the fight against AIDS, before quickly changing the topic to her admirable decision to hold weekly press conferences.

According to Mackenzie Watch, ABC's fake blog about President Allen's administration: “Mac has shown she's compassionate and a proponent of human rights. Putting some money and time into AIDS prevention and treatment would show us she realizes it's a much larger issue than the one person who happens to be on her staff.”

But surely there have been many a White House staffer who is HIV-positive, not to mention countless friends of Dorothy (if not Mary Cheney). We can only hope that neither of these designations is as newsworthy in real life as they are on this famously bleeding-heart show. But then again, the current administration is certainly stranger than fiction.