In June of 2004, USA Today's Robert Bianco proclaimed Michael K. Williams one of the top 10 reasons to still love television. The kudos were no doubt related to his role as stick-up artist Omar Little on HBO's critically acclaimed drama The Wire, which kicks off its fourth season on Sept. 10.

In the gritty cop series, created by David Simon (Homicide: Life on the Street), Omar is a modern-day Robin Hood from Baltimore's projects who holds up big-time dealers and gives their stash to addicts — for free. Every Sunday he takes his grandmother to church and has never uttered a swear word. Omar lives within a world that views homosexuality as a weakness, but he isn't ashamed of it.

“He makes no excuses for it,” Williams told AfterElton.com. “It is what it is, and he is fine with his bottom line. It is not about him being gay. He has accepted his lifestyle, and the causes and effects it has had on his life.”

Even though Omar has been threatened and shot, and two of his boyfriends were tortured — one winding up dead — he doesn't seem to change who or what he is. “Right now, Omar Little, he is in a good place,” Williams says. “He is happy; he's got his new love in his life and he is making good money. He is in a good place in Season 4.”

Williams remains tight-lipped about what is going to take place this season, but he did reveal that Omar finds a new love interest, Orlando.

In the first season, Omar's boyfriend and partner-in-crime, Brandon (Michael Kevin Darnall), was murdered by Avon Barksdale's (Wood Harris) crew, and his body was displayed as a warning. Omar quickly took the law into his own hands and shot several of Barksdale's men. Even though Brandon was brutally tortured before he died, he never gave Barksdale's cohorts the information they needed. In Season 3, Omar's next boyfriend, Dante (Ernest Waddell), met a similar fate, but cracked under the pressure.

Williams explains, “I think Dante just wanted Omar for himself. He wanted to domesticate Omar a little bit, turn him into a house cat, which ain't gonna happen.”

The Wire's writers have never shied away from showing Omar's love life. In the second-season episode “Hot Shots,” Omar and Dante shared a passionate kiss. Because of that simple lip-lock, Williams received a lot of backlash from the African-American community. Williams told The Advocate that when he was interviewed by DJ Sway Calloway (an MTV VJ) on the New York-based radio station Hot 97, Sway told him the scene “repulsed” him and it was “morally outrageous.”

But Williams counters: “I felt that it was a job well done. It is my job to get emotion and controversy, you know, possibly a little change. So the fact that I got him thinking and talking and judging, whatever the hell you want to call it, I did my job. … I welcome all the controversy. It is part of the job.”

Homophobic reactions from hyper-masculine men aren't uncommon these days, from Busta Rhymes' assault on a male fan for touching him to Jamaican rapper Buju Banton's lyrics that advocate killing homosexuals. Williams says that within the African-American community, such attitudes have a deeper root.

“We can't communicate to each other, so we acquaint everything with being a man [and] show no emotion and nothing weak,” he explains. “You know, a man can't cry, a man can't show vulnerability and we definitely can't be gay. … We are still working on that as a black community. To love ourselves and to communicate with each other and accept each other and our differences. We are still calling an educated brother with proper diction an Oreo cookie. What I am saying [is], it is a lot deeper than the gay issue.”

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