2007 was quite a year for gay geeks, with gay representation in comics books, on science fiction television and in video games being a frequent discussion topic. While these topics aren't entirely new, this year the discussion was at its most active.

On TV, we saw ourselves more often, especially on BBC America's Torchwood ... even though we had frustrating setbacks on shows like Heroes. Things looked incredibly bright for gamers, who found themselves expecting a good number of games with expected gay-inclusiveness and found it easier to find each other.

Additionally, gay geeks became more visible. Logo debuted its collection of animation, Alien Boot Camp,which included bumpers showing gay fans at comics and sci-fi conventions, as well as gay comic creators like Alison Bechtel. For a long time, this subset of queers weren't seen often, with gay geeks being happily surprised when they found each other, but that's changing as our visibility within the gay community increases.

Let's take a look back at the past year, shall we?

Here they come, the sound of drums

If we were to declare a king of the gay geeks, Russel T. Davies would be the candidate to beat. The Doctor Who producer did plenty to increase gay visibility on sci-fi television. The past season of Who regularly showed gay people as simply a part of the human tapestry. More importantly, 2007 was the year Torchwood made its USA debut. The series quickly became BBC America's biggest hit and, seeking to maintain the momentum from season one's success, the network announced that the second season will air only two weeks after it airs on BBC Three.

The success of Torchwood, as well as Doctor Who, is a significant development for gay sci-fi fans. On Torchwood, Captain Jack Harkness is a very different way of portraying queer men on television: as a dashing, heroic lead. Meanwhile, Captain Jack's return to Doctor Who this season continued to show his relationship with The Doctor as one having the kind of strained affection previously seen only with female companions like Sarah Jane Smith and Rose Tyler.

While Doctor Who is an obscure series for American fans, it's a major franchise in the UK and the series is the target of constant rumors and speculation regarding arrivals and departures both in front and behind the cameras. Those rumors included talk that Davies' may be cutting back on his Who duties with Steven Moffat taking over the series. Moffat wrote some of Who's most popular episodes and created the gay-inclusive Coupling and Jeckyll. If the speculation has any merit, Moffat sounds like a promising replacement.

We're still holding on for our hero on Heroes, Monday nights

For some media pundits, Heroes is a solid example of what diversity should look like on television,; but for people who actively advocate for increased diversity, the show is a mix of potential and problems. Last December, we noted that early promotion for the series had Zach as gay but that the show had suddenly turned away from the idea. Discussion into the character continued into the new year. Out producer Bryan Fuller confirmed that the character was written as gay, only to have those plans derailed by the management of Thomas Dekker, who played Zach. In its second season, Heroes was supposed to add a lesbian character but she, too, disappeared before becoming a major presence.

On the other hand Heroes has an active "HoYay" community: a fanbase that likes to point out moments where the guys exchange intense glances and close contact so that, when taken out of context, they appear to be lovers in a passionate relationship. At Comic-Con this year, producer Jeph Loeb joked about the audience's eagerness to invent male couples on the show, with Sendhil Ramamurthy and Greg Grunberg faking a kiss (foreshadowing, perhaps, the "Molly has two daddies" subplot from the second season). While it was refreshing to hear the Heroes crew take all that homoerotic speculation with humor, the show's gay fans continued to wonder how long we'd have to be happy just getting subtext, instead of text.

We finally did get a Hero on the Sci-Fi Channel

The Sci-Fi Channel's campy guilty-pleasure hit, Who Wants to Be a Superhero? had a gay contestant once again this year. This time, he had a long run, even though he didn't make the final three. Parthenon's elimination was a surprise to viewers who saw him portrayed as one of the competition's strongest performers until his final episode. He performed well in challenges and hadn't been called to the bottom three until his final episode.

Still, in a nice bit of equity, when Parthenon won the chance to call a loved one, we got to meet his partner Derek, the same way we met Hygena's husband when she made her call home. Parthenon's partner back home returned when the heroes' darkest secrets were revealed and Derek gave us a tour of a room Parthenon decorated with a pirate theme, much to Stan Lee's badly-feigned horror.

That's not to say we weren't disappointed that he didn't make it further. Since he hadn't been shown having issues to work though, fans of Parthenon felt blindsided by the elimination (or, to put it another way, WWTBAS' writers need to review that chapter on foreshadowing). More disappointingly, in post-elimination interviews we learned that Parthenon formed a friendship with The Defuser that had been edited out of the series. Since we had seen bits of Parthenon's friendship with Hygena, this was a disappointing discovery. The boldness of seeing Parthenon's partner portrayed so nonchalantly faded for me when I realized that the series worked to maintain a different stereotype about gay men.

We also got a Hero courtesy of Perry Moore

In September, another gay superhero was introduced with Perry Moore's Young Adult novel Hero. Moore's novel inspired controversy... not from anti-gay activists, but from comics writer Mark Millar. Millar objected to Moore naming a story he wrote (a hyped issue of Wolverine where the feral mutant kills gay mutant Northstar) as the frustrating inspiration for Hero and fans debated if Moore's reaction to the comic was fair or not.

Moore invoked more discussion when he published his Women in Refrigerators-inspired list, "Who cares about the death of a gay superhero anyway?" which listed gay characters that had been killed, raped, depowered or "straightened out". For comic fans like me who remember the discussion WiR inspired, the reactions to Moore's list was very familiar.

The battle over the bulge

In April, the comics blogosphere had what was probably its funniest controversy when an early cover for Justice Society of America #7 by photorealistic painter Alex Ross showed Citizen Steel with a realistic bulge. The image was called "creepy" and compared to extremely sexualized depictions of DC's female heroines. Gay comics bloggers had fun posting real life examples that made the fretting seem appropriately silly. Unsurprisingly, when the final issues hit the newsstands, the cover art was altered. After all we can't leave the fanboys questioning their manhood, can we?

In 2007 Gaymers were waiting for Godot's cuter, gay brother

In 2006, gaymers could relate to the hero of Bully, a game that allowed your character to kiss boys or girls. In 2007, aside from add-ons for The Sims 2, gay inclusive games only existed as hype for 2008's releases.

The Fallout games have quite a following among gaymers, not only for a combination of solid gameplay, an engaging storyline and an immersive setting, but also because Fallout 2 is the first game to allow players to marry a same-sex partner. The latest edition of the post-apocalyptic role-playing game, will make use an updated version of the game engine used in the last hot RPG title, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. So far, there's no news if the latest Fallout will have same-sex content, but so far the promise of a Fallout game that plays like Oblivion is enough to keep gaymers excited.

Meanwhile, the sequel to another role playing game to allow for same-sex marriage also headed towards gaymers homes. Lionhead Studios' Fable 2 promised more of the same plus improvements, in the way most Lionhead sequels do. GayGamer.net interviewed Peter Molyneux about the Fable franchise's inclusion of same-sex romances, with Molyneux insisting that the option was just a part of making a better game.

It also turned out that the pirate-themed MMO, Pirates of the Burning Sea, would have the potential for same-sex relationships. The game has been wowing gamers for a while with stunningly detailed screenshots, but the gay inclusiveness gives more reason to anticipate the game, which is currently in the last stages of beta testing and will go live in January.

Another game in development, Eternity's Child (a platform game for the Wii), was revealed to have an openly gay character. The game has a unique look that could make Eternity's Child a game to watch.

What I find interesting about those last two games, however, is that until now gay-inclusive games have been limited to role playing games (where, admittedly, the opportunities to allow for gay content is easy to find) and The Sims. I can't think of a major MMO or platform game to include gay stories before now, which makes these impressive forward steps.

GayGamer.net attacked

Sadly, not all developments for gay gamers were positive ones. In August, GayGamer.net was shut down for a weekend by a series of attacks. First, the site was hit with DOS attacks, then the site's forums were flooded with hate speech. The attack is under investigation as a hate crime. A silver lining to the story, however, came in the coverage of the attack. The major gaming press rallied to voice support for GayGamer.net and the comment threads at gaming blogs like Kotaku were largely supportive.

Gay geeks are doing it for themselves

For gays, there's a great power in forming communities that can be a source of support and network building, and gay geeks certainly did their part to empower themselves in 2007.

In March, Star Trek: New Voyages made its debut. The fan-created project featured the gay characters promised to gay Trek fans by (Star Trek creator) Gene Roddenberry, a promise that producers backed away from after Roddenberry's death. The web-based series even had out Trek legend George Takei reprising his role as Capt. Sulu.

Meanwhile, at the Game Developers' Conference, Jeb Havens worked on getting gays working within the industry to work together and discuss the issues of being queer while working in the game industy. The Gay Game-Industry Professionals List also started seeking LGBT professionals interested in networking.

Gaymers were also active in making their own safe spaces for games played online, with gaymer guilds in Neverwinter Nights popping up as ways gay gamers can form safe spaces for each other. The gay community of City of Heroes was very active, helped by the support by the game's publisher, NC Soft. A Pride Celebration, the Rainbow Prom, saw the game's virtual nightclub filled to capacity. The drag-themed supergroup Wig Heroes shrugged off a Ritki invasion in Atlas Park, a Halloween bash kept things lively and a LGBT/LGBT-friendly forum debuted. Key to the success of City of Heroes' gay community is the support of NC Soft's community liaisons, who not only work to help these events become the success they are, but also maintain the game's official site as a community that's open and inclusive of diversity. NC Soft seems to treat community-building as a tool for drawing customers and they've worked to make sure to let LGBT players know that they'd be welcome in Paragon City (or the Rogue Isles).

Things weren't entirely bright, however. When it became clear that Mass Efect had implied lesbian relationships, we asked if male couples were also possible and received a dodge of a response. In November, a Halo 3 player posted video of himself facing homophobic taunting. However, Microsoft quickly responded, decrying the incident and guiding users to the X-Box's complaint functions. While game publishers seem to see it as a problem, homophobia amongst the larger gaming community still runs strong. On the other hand, thanks to gay gaming groups, these incidents are being acted upon with a greater swiftness and urgency.

While there were a few disappointments and setbacks in 2007, it was a year with plenty of steps forward. 2008 looks even more promising, as some of 2007's advances move toward fruition.