The hot gay-players of Rescue Me

They had a gay man who was beaten so badly he had to be put in a medical coma, and this was justified by the show because he was writing a book or article about gay firefighters. The man who beat him so badly was presented as sympathetic because he had a gay son (how awful), and the son then helped clear him from any charges, which he meant he basically got off scot free from beating a man near-death. This story was so disgusting that they tried to make up for it in the next season by bringing the gay son back and having him with his boyfriend to take care of his Alzheimers-ridden mother (although the father was very upset when he found out his son was a bottom, because he walked in on them having sex - of course, if a gay man has to take care of his severely ill mother, he's going to be horny, right).

A season later, they had Lee Tergesen as a firefighter who was secretly a transvestite and went around hitting on the other men. One of the other firefighters was tormented and teased by everyone because ha ha, one of his friends turned out to be a homo.

In the third season, they had a ridiculous storyline where Probie somehow became bi (in a storyline with NO kissing, NO affection, and actors who looked embarrassed) then was "cured" of his bisexuality by having sex with a woman. This story was done because they wanted to make the actor who played Probie uncomfortable. The only thing worse than this story was that the original story was supposed to be about Probie being manipulated by another man until they fell into an affair. Then the other firefighters helped Probie see that he was straight, and the gay man who manipulated him would turn violent or dark or whatever. They only dropped this story because some of the writers or other people at the show didn't know if it was a good idea.

I'm just curious as to why Afterelton is writing a piece about the guys on this show when the show itself has been virulently anti-gay and proud of it.

I agree with Jon on this one.  "Rescue Me" has been awful in its depictions of gay and lesbian characters.  Jon is only touching on a few examples; there are a lot more, and it's hard not to get a sense that the show's writers and creators have some weird kind of problem with gay people.

To add to Jon's examples (and this still isn't covering everything):  long before Probie had his bi-sexual storyline, he became friends with a gay man who was obviously obsessed by him.  That story ended, if I remember it correctly, with Probie resisting the man's advances by beating the man with a baseball bat.  A straight female character, Sheila, decided to experiment with lesbianism. Her girlfriend turns out to be the horrible stereotype of a lesbian as a violent, domestic abuser.  Compare this to what Jon was saying about the shows' creators original plans that Probie's first boyfriend was going to turn violent.  I mean, who is this show's researcher when it comes to gays and lesbians, Dr. Paul Cameron?

Gay characters are often jokes on the show.  One African-American character, already a source of "humor" for his small height, eventually proclaims his love for another male character.  It's used as a punchline, and I don't believe the character is ever seen after that.  When the show has one of its main characters "try" homosexuality, it almost never takes.  Tommy's daughter, Probie, and Shiela are all three examples of this.  Usually these stories end up as just a joke for the show.  (Even Probie's bi-sexual storyline reportedly ends with him having a three-way with a man and a woman and realizing that touching a guy's legs disgusts him.  I've read that but don't know if it's true after finally dropping this "critically acclaimed" show for good once they trivialized spousal rape.  You see, in one charming episode last season, Dennis Leary's character forced sex on his estranged wife and the show portrayed her as forcefully resisting but then, hey, kind of liking it.  Needless to say, this show is disgusting even beyond its depictions of gays and lesbians). 

I can understand AfterElton reporting on the show and its (sometimes) hot actors, particularly if you only watch the show occasionally.  The show gets a lot of hype and a lot of acclaim, and its easy to believe, from what you hear, that it's like "the Sopranos" or "The Shield." But those shows deal with issues like sexuality in a more complex way, and always make sure that there's a clear difference between what we see in homophobic characters and what is actually the point and position of the shows' creators.  I don't see this distinction with "Rescue Me."  They use gays too often as either violent freaks or the butt of jokes. 

I wish some major television critics would actually address this, but, instead, you get a lot of critics deliberately ignoring it because they like other aspects of the show.  Take T.V. Guide's critic Matt Roush, who once briefly noted the show's problematic portrayal of gays and lesbians and suggested he might write a column about it.  He never did, and, instead, has gone on praising the show as one of the best on t.v.  A lot of these critics must be able to type one-handed since they're able to hold their nose so well while they write.

a lot of the time, I think gays are overly defensive of tv shows they perceive as homophobic if it doesn't make it's gay characters martyrs (Nip/Tuck, Dirt, Desperate Housewives... three shows with a lot of gay fans), but I think with this show that you can't be defensive enough.   If the show has "cured" TWO gay characters, there's some real homophobia there, I do notice a lot of conservatives like this show, go figure.