Not so glad about GLAAD's report on gay visibility

I hate to throw a wet blanket over GLAAD's annual report touting that the number of GLBT characters on television has doubled, but in taking a closer look at the numbers I can't quite gin up their level of enthusiasm over the news.

My beef is that this report seems to value quantity over quality. Is a doubling of "barely there" gay characters really something to celebrate? Look at Joe the Bartender on Grey's Anatomy. Sightings of Big Foot at Seattle Grace Hospital occurred more often than did sightings of Joe last season.  GLAAD's report acknowledges this fact, but still includes Joe as recurring in hopes that he'll show up more frequently.

GLAAD's list of gay characters includes a cavalcade of others that are also "barely there" including Oscar on The Office, Eric on Gossip Girl, Chaz on ER, Gay Kenny on My Name is Earl, Roy on Lipstick Jungle, Andrew, Bob and Lee on Desperate Housewives and Cliff on Ugly Betty. As much as I love Desperate Housewives, Andrew is basically background scenery at this point, much less Wisteria Lanes' resident gay couple, Bob and Lee. 

And there is reason to be dubious over the season's new gay characters as well. GLAAD lists Knight Rider as having a lesbian character, but as I reported from the Television Critics Association, that show's creative team wasn't even on the same page as to whether or not the character was even still a lesbian.

Tuc Watkins and Kevin Rahm on Desperate Housewives

Throw in Marco on Privileged who is so far definitely a secondary character (I call him Exposition Marco because so far he's just there so the main character doesn't have to talk to herself) and Larry on the wretched Do Not Disturb (which is unlikely to live long enough to see who our next president is much less survive until the new year) and I'm actually feeling kind of blue about gay representation on scripted broadcast television. Oh, yeah, the numbers of GLBT characters are down on cable as well.

I find it especially disturbing that since Will & Grace ended more than two years ago, we are still lacking a single show that features what I truly consider to be a lead male gay character. GLAAD counts Brothers & Sisters' Kevin Walker (Mathew Rhys) as a lead character and while technically he is (and while I think he is a great character) he is part of a very large ensemble which necessarily limits his screentime. Where is  a show that truly has a gay lead character?

At least GLBT representation on animated shows is doing well, something I find nicely subversive as those shows appeal to a much younger demographic. At least the kids and young adults watching The Simpsons, The Goode Family, American Dad and so forth see a world with plenty of gay visibility. 

And I don't mean to dump unduly on GLAAD. They do much good work and part of that work is giving the networks credit to encourage them to do more. But when they lead off their report stating that the number of GLBT characters is at an all time high, I think they give the networks too much credit, thereby letting the networks (and the journalists covering their report) think that things are better than they are. 

Yes, I know things are better when it comes to reality television which is great. Call me old-fashioned, but I think there is something significantly different about a scripted character who comes into our homes week after week and we get to know intimately as they change over multiple seasons as opposed to reality contestants, the majority of which don't even last an entire season.

Perhaps next year we can cheer that we have the same number of characters, but that they actually show up every episode and have interesting storylines.