Replacing Rosie with a gay man on The View?

Here's an interesting new wrinkle in the search for a new co-host of The View: People is reporting that ABC might replace Rosie O'Donnell with a man -- specifically naming Mario Cantone and Ross "The Intern" Mathews. (Maybe that explains why Cantone has appeared on The View so often?)

On a related note, the Post Chronicle's Mitch Marconi is also reporting that "Queen of All Media" Perez Hilton might also be in the running for the co-hosting gig, with an appearance as guest-host scheduled for later this month. I'm not familiar with the Post Chronicle, so it's hard to judge the reliability of this rumor except to take it with several grains of salt.

Both Mathews and Cantone have shown great chemistry with the current View hosts in their recent appearances, so my initial reaction is pretty positive. A part of me wonders, though, if such a move would be playing to stereotypes of gay men as nothing more than confidants of straight women, a fun partner to dish over gossip. Still, gay men don't have much visibility in daytime, so would be a step forward to have a gay man co-hosting a popular show like The View (it would also be great to see Mathews in a setting where he gets more respect than Jay Leno gives him).

At the very least, I'm hoping to see that The View doesn't lose its last trace of diversity. One thing that made The View appealing to me when it first debuted was that its hosts came from different backgrounds. For the past year, Rosie added a queer perspective to The View's discussions and as much as I like some of her rumored replacements, I've been hoping we wouldn't see The View get less diverse in its eleventh season. Adding Cantone or Mathews, while an unusual move, would maintain a queer perspective on the show.

What are your thoughts on having a gay man on The View? Would it be worth it to get a gay man on daytime, or is putting a gay man on a show that has from the start been all about women a step backward for gay visibility?