While scenes showing two women kissing have slowly gained some acceptance on network TV, kisses between two men are still very much taboo. A planned romantic kiss between two men on the FOX primetime drama Melrose Place in 1994 generated so much backlash the network ended up cutting away from the actual kiss to show a straight character's reaction instead.

It wasn't until 2000 that we had the first gay kiss on network TV, on the NBC sitcom Will and Grace, but that was a "protest kiss" between two gay male friends, rather than two men in a romantic relationship. The first romantic kiss on network television didn't occur until a year later, on a 2001 episode of the WB's teen drama Dawson's Creek. A few gay kisses have followed on network TV since then--on an episode of Boston Public at the end of 2001, then on Dawson's Creek and The O.C. in 2003, and episodes of Will and Grace and Joan of Arcadia in 2004, and now Desperate Housewives in 2005.

But this still brings the total number of network TV shows airing gay kisses over the last twenty years to only six--compared with over 30 network TV shows airing kisses between women during the same time period.

Which is why this scene on Desperate Housewives, however brief, is so significant. It isn't nearly as explicit as any randomly chosen gay scene on premium channel shows like Queer as Folk and Six Feet Under, but it doesn't have to be explicit to be progressive for network TV--it simply has to air.

On the surface, a series about suburban housewives may seem an unlikely candidate to push the envelope on gay visibility. Boycotted by various conservative groups even before its first episode aired last fall, Desperate Housewives (whose creator, Marc Cherry, is openly gay) lost advertisers like KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut--who pulled their ads from the show because of its racy (heterosexual) content--and were temporarily the subject of an FCC investigation for a risque ad that aired during Monday Night Football in the fall.

But the constant controversy has only helped the show's ratings, and the show doesn't seem to be having much trouble attracting enough advertisers--which is why it is perfectly positioned to introduce a realistic gay storyline. Two teenage boys kissing in a pool isn't going to raise many eyebrows on a show that features storylines about a housewife seducing her teenage gardener, a PTA mom working as a high-class call-girl on the side, and a husband and wife exploring S&M.

Andrew has his flaws. Some big ones, in fact, like smoking pot and feeling little remorse after accidentally running over an elderly woman in a previous episode. He's not exactly the poster child for a wonderful human being--but in that respect, he's no different from all of the other residents of Wisteria Lane, few of whom you'd actually want to live next door to.

Despite Andrew's shortcomings, if Desperate Housewives sensitively explores his coming-out and integrates his sexuality into the storyline on an ongoing basis, it will be one of the few dramas on primetime network TV to do so. That it happens to be a series that receives around 22 million viewers every week just makes it that much sweeter.

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