To be honest i did see this program and i thought it was awfull and quite offensive.  Every single gay stereotype that there is and has ever been was dredged up to create the central character and his friend. 

Bitchy, effeminate, camp, secretly wants to be female, dress wearing, fashion obsessed, cheesy pop loving, and wholey unlikeable characters.

When the boy stole the neighbours dress to wear it, i just had to turn it off.

TV finally seems to be moving on from the mincing, bitchy comic relief steriotype of the past.  The last thing we need is gay writers incapable of moving on from that.  It had its funny moments but they would have been there without the gays and i really hope this doesnt go on BBC america.

I completely agree with you. I'm a very girly dyke but I know I don't "represent" all that is lesbian by any stretch of the imagination and I hate that everytime a gay man or a lesbian shows up on screen who isn't "neutral" in their personality, someone cries STEREOTYPE!

There is definitely a bias against any representation of gay men who aren't butch and masculine and "but for the fact that i like to sleep with men..." types of gay men on most gay media blogs.

I don't understand it. Not every representation of a nelly or queenie gay man is about pandering to stereotypes.

THERE ARE LOVELY NELLY, QUEENIE, FEMININE GAY MEN IN THE WORLD AND THEY ARE FABULOUS AND SHOULD HAVE EQUAL REPRESENTATION IN MOVIES AND ON TELEVISION without us all going into stereotype panic.

I feel like this trend is also true for lesbians.

I live in NYC and you can't swing a cat and not hit some bald or buzz-cutted, tatooted, pierced butch lesbian struting down the street (age 18-70) but you'd never know it by watching South of Nowhere or The L Word or various and sundry lesbo-themed movies.

It's as if we're ashamed of the diversity of personalities within the queer community while simultaneously appealing to networks and producers to add more diversity to their programing, etc.

Do we really believe that we should never look or act any differently than how we think straight folks look and act, you know, EVER!

I'd love to hear more about what other folks think.

Are you serious?  I’m not insulted by gay culture.  Some of the greatest scientific, artistic, military and cultural minds ever to exist swam the warm waters of gay. 

I know what gay culture is, iv lived it, spoken to, and dated, people immersed in it.  Anyone who has even slipped a toe into gay culture knows that this stereotypical piece of crap shows nothing but what people looking in from the outside want to see.

I’m not ashamed of gay diversity, i just don’t think there is any.  The truth is there is no gay diversity on TV.  There’s certainly a bias against the "manly gay" on TV not against the camp.  I can name 10 camp stereotypes for every "manly gay".  You try being that "manly gay" and seeing nothing representing you in media, only the camp. That’s what people expect when they first meet you. That’s what you think you have to be when you realise you fancy boys.  There’s an under representation within an underrepresented minority.

Anyway, im getting off my original point that your complaining about.  I could accept this show (even love it, buy the t-shirt and DVDs) if there was one iota of personality in the main character, and his friend, that was original in representing a gay male.  Its just recycled, desexualised, comic relief gay all over again.  You could just dump them in an `Are You Being Served' episode and no-one would notice. 

Maybe i criticized too early and i need to give the characters time to grow, maybe you hailed it as being great too early.  But it just angers me that a gay man who did something as progressive as Beautiful thing will be lazy enough to produce these 2D stereotypes.  I know were underrepresented in the media (cross dressers not the least)  But we don’t have to accept any titbit that is thrown in our direction, and this is certainly doing no one any favours.

I think this show is utterly charming...I'll certainly be watching every episode that i can find. 

I don't really find the characters stereotypical...you don't often find young gay characters who are that self-aware and confident.

 A few You tube clips to wet your whistle.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=eYaQjLVs6f0

 http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OGYgSif36ic

 http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zc3dLSOdPlA