Best. Gay. Week. Ever. (May 16, 2008)

Dennis here, covering the column for the first time ever this week, which means I’ve been sifting through mounds of queer pop culture news to come up with the very best bits to share. It was an all-consuming project, and I feel compelled to quote Justin Walker (Dave Annable) from last Sunday’s Brothers & Sisters:

“My God, this is like the gayest week of my life!”

No seriously, preparing B.G.W.E is a much bigger task than I thought. My hat is off to bossman Michael Jensen for having done it week in and week out for the last two years.

First up: Sudden outbreak of gay sightings on Grey’s Anatomy

When it comes to queer representation, Grey's Anatomy has always seriously lagged behind ABC’s two tentpoles of gay-friendliness: Ugly Betty and Brothers & Sisters. Sure, Grey's has that "barely there" Bartender Joe (Steven W. Bailey) lurking in the background — but these days you’re about as likely to see him as you are Sasquatch.

But something queer seems to be afoot over in Shonda Rhimes' sandbox, because over the past few weeks the gay quotient at Seattle Grace has definitely been ratcheted up.

Let's start with two weeks ago, when guest star Jason O’Mara played a patient with a brain tumor pressing on his cerebral cortex which was causing him to act out in inappropriate ways. In the scene pictured below he was supposed to be pimping out his frumpy wife (Clea Duvall), and yet it seemed very much like he was making a pass at George O’Malley (T.R. Knight)

"So, are you single or what?"

Photo credit: Scott Garfield/ABC

In fact, the scene neatly echoed a season 3 episode in which out actor Peter Paige guested as a gay man with a tumor pressing on his cerebral cortex which (you guessed it) caused him to say and do inappropriate things. Anyway, in that episode, the patient (Paige) makes a pass at Patrick Dempsey's character.

Then last week there was the “gay soldiers” storyline, which had yet another tumor victim — this one a closeted gay Iraqi vet — caught between his grumpy, conservative father and his soldier lover, both of whom want to be by his side.

Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) is lurking in the soldier's room at one point, and when she sees the two men kissing passionately she gets a wistful look and turns away to give them some privacy. As many people commented this week, it’s a beautiful scene, and Meredith’s response to the passionate lovers' kiss was not so much surprise as it was envy. She wanted to be kissed like that.

"McDreamy ain't got nothin' on us!"

Unfortunately, the tumor guy doesn’t survive surgery. In the last scene his tearful lover sneaks over to his gurney and kisses the corpse. If both guys had been, you know, alive it would have been really hot.

But seriously, it was a very touching storyline. If you are one of the many gay viewers who somehow never connected with Grey’s Anatomy, it might make you reassess the show…

And while we’re on the subject of Grey’s and the gays, it looks like the show is even developing a lesbian storyline with Callie (Sara Ramirez) and Dr. Hahn (Brooke Smith). I love both those characters and think this is a wonderful development, but if we discover later that one or both of them has a brain tumor I'm going to be perturbed.