2007: BEST GAY YEAR EVER!

APRIL: GREY'S IS ALL WET, OUT IS OUT
GLAAD started their annual pilgrimage around the nation that is better known as the GLAAD Awards. Taking place in the best known gay meccas including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Wichita, Kansas, GLAAD honored a variety of folks including Brothers & Sisters for "Outstanding Drama" and Ugly Betty for "Outstanding Comedy". Also honored was Grey's Anatomy for "Outstanding Episode Imitating an Ostrich Burying its Head in the Sand During a Public Relations Crisis" for their special Isaiah Washington episode. Shonda Rhimes received a special "Dodging the Question" citation.

Actually, they were honored for their "Where the Boys Are" episode which included Joe the gay bartender and his boyfriend Walter (pictured above) tagging along on a camping trip as plot contrivances for the various doctor's character arcs. At the time, I expressed annoyance that the show was being honored for such a lame episode especially when up against Cold Case's "Forever Blue "episode.

Several readers pointed out that the episode also included a positive transgender storyline, something I shouldn't have overlooked and I stand corrected. That being said, Joe has appeared exactly zero times this season leaving this very large ensemble cast with no gay representation. Guess they won't be getting any awards this season -- unless it's for the best "barely there" character.

It's hard to know why exactly Jodie Foster chose now to start thanking her "beloved Cydney" whilst excepting awards, but it was in April that Out Magazine tried to give Jodie and the supposedly-closeted Anderson Cooper a big old shove out of the closet with their The Glass Closet issue. The issue examined how Hollywood and the traditional media help closeted celebrities stay closeted. They do! Who knew?

As someone who interviews celebrities myself, some of whom are possibly closeted, this one is always a struggle for me. I never hesitate to bring up the subject during an interview (and won't do the interview if a publicist tells me I can't ask the question), but if the interviewee won't specifically discuss the topic, I just don't feel right following Out's footsteps. Now if I were to see someone getting jiggy with someone else in public, that I would report.

Perhaps it's because Wild Hogs — shudder — sucked up all the gay panic energy in Hollywood, but television sitcoms this year seemed to demonstrate a very post-gay panic sensibility. From 30 Rock to How I Met Your Mother to The New Adventures of Old Christine, Andy Barker, PI and Family Guy, the jokes usually didn't come at the expense of the gay characters. In fact, if we weren't laughing at the homophobes we were watching straight guys struggle with possibly being attracted to a man.

Such was this case with Alan (Jon Cryer) on Two and a Half-Men when he found himself eager to spend time with Greg, a new gay friend. Not only did everyone assume Alan was gay, but Alan also started to wonder and even kissed Greg to find out if there was any chemistry between them. Turns out that Alan wasn't really gay, but what really rattled his cage is that Greg wasn't interested in him in the first place.

IMHO — The Year in TV

It's hard to criticize a show named Dirt for getting down in the mud, but Dirt simply took its ugly premise — that beneath its shiny surface, the underside of Hollywood is an ugly place — too far. The "gay" character was sexually confused, pathetic, and yet another in a long line of psychotic stalkers. Thanks, but no thanks!

The Amazing Race: All Stars featured not one, but two gay couples and what's better than watching gay couples run around the globe doing crazy stunts (stunt car driving! paddling around a pond!) and bickering as they become lost, exhausted and cranky? Actually not much as we also got to see same-sex couples being affectionate and pretty much exactly like their straight counterparts.

From Comedy Central came The Sarah Silverman Program giving us Steve and Brian, probably the oddest gay couple since Beecher and Keller on Oz. But Steve and Brian aren't convicted felons caught in a tango of passion and betrayal that can only end in death. At least I hope not as the two gay geeks prove that all gay men aren't svelte, hairless denizens of Manhattan.