The gaying of TV

I remember after I marathoned the first season of Queer as Folk on DVD, I went outside and couldn't understand where all the straight people came from.

And I mean, I live in San Francisco.

There was a time when all a show had to do to get me to watch was have subliminal homosexuality - okay, maybe that's not the only reason I watched Xena, but it helped - or a tangential gay character. We were desperate for queer representation on television shows.

Then Ellen came out and a year later, Will and Grace came along, and of course, QAF and the L Word and Noah's Arc and then, I don't know, everyone had a gay or lesbian character on their show. I can't keep track anymore. And I don't even watch reality TV, which I understand is a hotbed of homos these days.

Michael keeps sending out these emails asking if I watch such and such a show for an article, and I'm like, don't tell me that show has a gay character on it!

And he's like, oh yeah, didn't you know? I just whimper.

Don't misunderstand. This isn't a complaint. I'm totally happy that there's a lesbian surgeon on Nip/Tuck and that Pratt's brother had sex with his boyfriend in the shower on ER, and there's a gay brother on Brothers and Sisters who actually kisses and has sex and stuff. I seriously am extremely blissed out that Omar is on boyfriend number three on The Wire and that Lucy Lawless had a three way on Battlestar Galactica.

It's just that I can't watch every single show with a gay character on it anymore. Who has that kind of time?

I guess The Wire's Omar has that same problem - here he is, watching Oz on HBO with boyfriend Dante: