GLAAD finds the 2008-2009 TV season the most gay inclusive

Today GLAAD released its annual report on LGBT characters on TV and there's plenty of good news to be found in the report. On broadcast networks the media watchdog group found this fall season to have the most queer characters in the report's history — a total of 35 characters, up from the 20 GLAAD counted last season.

ABC remains the most gay-inclusive network. It is the only channel with LGBT lead characters, the only network with transgender characters and the network with the greatest number of LGBT characters overall — 15 out of the 35 counted. There is a downside, however, to ABC's record. While it has the highest number of LGBT characters, only one of them is a person of color — Grey's Anatomy's Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez).

ABC's LGBT characters
(Not pictured: Mo and Trish from the upcoming animated series The Goode Family)

Meanwhile, for a network that has fared poorly in the past reports, Fox is suddenly showing some promise. This season, the network has 9 LGBT characters, the second highest number among the five networks. Things look less encouraging, however, when you realize how many of those characters come from animated series.

Fox's LGBT characters
(Not pictured: Andrew from the upcoming animated series Sit Down, Shut Up)

In third place, GLAAD counted seven LGBT characters on NBC shows. That started to feel a lot less promising, however, as I tried to find pictures of the characters. Some of them are so "barely there" that it's hard to find a picture of the character if you're not familiar with the show.

NBC's LGBT characters

Finally, at the bottom of the heap are The CW and CBS, with a total of three gay characters between them. That includes the two barely-there gay characters on Gossip Girl and Privileged as well as Orlando Jones' upcoming role on The Rules of Engagement.

The CW's LGBT characters

One further observation — there's a gender divide that suggests that the networks treat queer men and women differently. GLAAD counts six bisexual characters and only one — American Dad's Roger the Alien — is male. (And ... he's an alien.) Meanwhile, all of the lesbian characters that GLAAD lists are only recurring characters who don't appear regularly on their shows. I'll let our AfterEllen.com sisters discuss what they think it means, though I thought it was certainly worth noting.

So where does this increase in LGBT characters come from? It turns out that it's a pretty even mix. Some come from characters on new shows such as Larry on Do Not Disturb. Some are new characters on established shows including Marc's boyfriend Cliff on Ugly Betty or Angela on Bones. Others are characters we didn't know were gay or bisexual at the time of the last report, including Gossip Girl's Eric and House's Thirteen — that's encouraging since it means that things are improving at different points in the development of a series.

You can take a look at the list of characters and, if you'd like to compare them here's the list for the 2007-2008 season.

What do you think? Does the report leave you optimistic about the progress of LGBT characters on television? More interestingly, what do you think of the various networks' showings?