Readers' Choice: The Top 25 Gay TV Characters Revealed!

It's no surprise both Keith Charles and David Fisher from HBO's Six Feet Under made our list. While Will Truman on Will & Grace was usually helping Grace deal with her relationship issues (and having very few of his own), David and Keith were neck deep in their own relationship problems. But viewers didn't mind too much as their partnership marked one of the first fully developed gay relationships ever seen on television.

Keith Charles was a breakthrough character in many ways. Not only was he a non-stereotype masculine gay man employed as a cop who loved paintball, but his relationship with David Fisher marked one of the first ongoing gay interracial pairings on television.

As played by Matthew St. Patrick, the character of Keith was complicated and not always positive. While he was completely out and unapologetic about who he was, he also had anger issues that on several occasions nearly ruined his relationship. But he also provided a needed counterbalance to the stereotype of black gay men as mincing queens. Indeed, that stereotype was exploded in the show's fourth episode "Familia" when David and Keith are called "fags" in a parking lot. Keith grabs the man by his collar and says, "Next time you call someone a f**king fag, you make sure that fag isn't an L.A. police officer."

No wonder gay fans put Keith in the top twenty-five!

Fans of Brothers & Sisters cater waiter Scotty were heartbroken when Scotty exited the show less than halfway through the first season. After all, he had been the one to challenge Kevin Walker (Matthew Rhys) to loosen up his buttons and live life as a gay man a little more freely. And it was with Scotty that Kevin shared that first kiss that told gay viewers Brothers & Sisters was going to be much more than another drama chastely portraying a gay couple’s neutered relationship.

As written by B&S creator Jon Robin Baitz and acted by Macfarlane, Scotty is unabashedly gay, proud of who he is, and feisty when backed into a corner. After he left the show, fans pined for his return, finding Kevin’s subsequent relationships with Chad Barry (Jason Lewis) and Jason McCallister (Eric Winter) to lack the same chemistry.

Indeed, some started referring to Scotty as Kevin’s "Mr. Big" (referencing Carrie Bradshaw’s on again/off again relationship on Sex and the City) in hopes that Scotty might return. Scotty has indeed returned to B&S and just last week found himself again dating Kevin, setting up a possible love triangle with Kevin and his most recent boyfriend Jason McCallister (Eric Winter), yet another way B&S is breaking ground in portraying gay relationships on broadcast TV.