Hell hath no fury like a Nuke fan scorned!

Well, well, well! Yesterday's As the World Turns certainly got folks worked up! I was so swamped with my BEST.GAY.YEAR.EVER! column that I only just now read all the comments and I only got to watch the Nuke clips late last night. Given the fury in the comments section, I was half-expecting to see Noah hit on Grandma Emma and the two of them slip off to the barn for a little hetero hanky-panky. Fortunately, that's not quite how things went down and I've got some thoughts to offer up on what did happen.

But first, let me put on this handy fire retardant suit because methinks I might need it given some of what I have to say.

Let me open up the packaging. Pull out the suit. Boy, these things are stiff! Okay, first the legs, now the arms. Where is the damn zipper? Okay, there. And now the hood. Phew, it's stuffy in here!

Okay, now here goes: I think some folks might be overreacting a bit to the supposed homophobia indicated by cutting away from the kiss.

And cue the pitchfork wielding mob! Here is hoping this suit works!

Obviously, I'm not serious about folks who are upset being an out-of-control mob, but am just trying to inject a little levity into the situation.

So let's briefly recap yesterday's episode one more time.

As everyone knows, last week we had Noah invited to spend Christmas with Luke on the farm and in this episode we're treated to a scene of Luke's parents, Lily and Holden, reminiscing about how quickly their son has grown up and how he's now out on the porch with his boyfriend. And they're completely fine with it.

Later, when Luke has his Christmas "miracle" and fetches the butter, Noah looks at him with tears in his eyes. To celebrate, the family offers up a toast to Luke and to Noah. Later Noah, not much for mushy words and sentiments, gives Luke a card reading:

"Luke, I wish I had your way with words but I don't. Thank you for never giving up on me even when I pushed you away. Being with you has made me happier than I have ever been. Merry Christmas. LOVE, Noah."

That's right, one teenage boy just told another teenage boy that he loves him on daytime television. And several times during the episode, Noah squeezed Luke's arm or they touched and were always in close proximity like lovebirds tend to be. Finally, we had them under the mistletoe and the infamous kiss that wasn't.

And for this CBS and those involved with ATWT are being called homophobes and worse.

Before those lighters are applied to those torches, let me just say I am not cool with how the camera cut away from the kiss. Frankly, given that the two had just said they love each and made all sorts of goo-goo eyes at each other, I'm not sure what the person who made that call thought they were accomplishing. And I'm as frustrated as anyone that Nuke haven't been featured as prominently as they deserve to be. Clearly this storyline is being treated differently because Nuke is a same-sex couple.

But again, we just saw two young men say they love each other. And on daytime television. Allow me to recap a few things, if you will.

No other soap opera except the now-canceled Passions has a gay character. General Hospital had one they gay-bashed and then wrote off.

The Fox Network has no gay characters that aren't animated. CBS primetime has no gay characters. NBC has a handful of "barely there" gay characters some of which have appeared in one episode this season. And even ABC's very gay-friendly Ugly Betty hasn't had a kiss between Marc and Cliff yet. In fact, the only show regularly featuring same-sex kisses on network TV is Brothers & Sisters.

My point? Just that I don't think it's fair to call ATWT homophobic or to berate them relentlessly. There has been no other storyline on daytime television that comes close to what ATWT has done. We've no idea how hard the producers and writers of the show may have had to fight to even get Nuke on the air.

Look, I've no problem with folks being passionate about Nuke and even calling up CBS to complain about cutting away from the kiss or petitioning them to do more with the characters. I think those are great ideas. But how many folks also wrote and called CBS to say how much they love Nuke and appreciate the show is doing what no one else will?

And if our goal is to get better gay visibility on the air, I'm not sure that calling the folks doing the one show on daytime TV (and one of the few on air, period) where the gay characters have kissed and said they love each other, where the homophobic character is the insane killer, and where pretty much everyone else is gay supportive, homophobic is the way to do it.

Frankly, if I were a writer on another soap opera or television show and I saw ATWT getting so much grief, I might simply decide that the crap I might get from the advertisers, not to mention homophobic viewers, plus the gay folks angry I'm not doing enough for them, simply wasn't worth the grief and not do a gay character at all.

Again, I am not cool with how some aspects of this are being handled and if I get to interview the powers that be, I'll specifically ask those questions. But I do think a little perspective is order.

Okay, you may now light those torches!