2007 was quite a year for gay geeks, with gay representation in comics books, on science fiction television and in video games being a frequent discussion topic. While these topics aren't entirely new, this year the discussion was at its most active.

On TV, we saw ourselves more often, especially on BBC America's Torchwood ... even though we had frustrating setbacks on shows like Heroes. Things looked incredibly bright for gamers, who found themselves expecting a good number of games with expected gay-inclusiveness and found it easier to find each other.

Additionally, gay geeks became more visible. Logo debuted its collection of animation, Alien Boot Camp,which included bumpers showing gay fans at comics and sci-fi conventions, as well as gay comic creators like Alison Bechtel. For a long time, this subset of queers weren't seen often, with gay geeks being happily surprised when they found each other, but that's changing as our visibility within the gay community increases.

Let's take a look back at the past year, shall we?

Here they come, the sound of drums

If we were to declare a king of the gay geeks, Russel T. Davies would be the candidate to beat. The Doctor Who producer did plenty to increase gay visibility on sci-fi television. The past season of Who regularly showed gay people as simply a part of the human tapestry. More importantly, 2007 was the year Torchwood made its USA debut. The series quickly became BBC America's biggest hit and, seeking to maintain the momentum from season one's success, the network announced that the second season will air only two weeks after it airs on BBC Three.

The success of Torchwood, as well as Doctor Who, is a significant development for gay sci-fi fans. On Torchwood, Captain Jack Harkness is a very different way of portraying queer men on television: as a dashing, heroic lead. Meanwhile, Captain Jack's return to Doctor Who this season continued to show his relationship with The Doctor as one having the kind of strained affection previously seen only with female companions like Sarah Jane Smith and Rose Tyler.

While Doctor Who is an obscure series for American fans, it's a major franchise in the UK and the series is the target of constant rumors and speculation regarding arrivals and departures both in front and behind the cameras. Those rumors included talk that Davies' may be cutting back on his Who duties with Steven Moffat taking over the series. Moffat wrote some of Who's most popular episodes and created the gay-inclusive Coupling and Jeckyll. If the speculation has any merit, Moffat sounds like a promising replacement.

We're still holding on for our hero on Heroes, Monday nights

For some media pundits, Heroes is a solid example of what diversity should look like on television,; but for people who actively advocate for increased diversity, the show is a mix of potential and problems. Last December, we noted that early promotion for the series had Zach as gay but that the show had suddenly turned away from the idea. Discussion into the character continued into the new year. Out producer Bryan Fuller confirmed that the character was written as gay, only to have those plans derailed by the management of Thomas Dekker, who played Zach. In its second season, Heroes was supposed to add a lesbian character but she, too, disappeared before becoming a major presence.

Earlier this week we posted about a gay gamer with the name xxxGayBoyxxx who was ganged up on by a bunch of homophobic gamers. We even interviewed him here.

The good news is that Microsoft's Xbox Live Direcot of Programming, who goes by the handle Major Nelson, just posted his response to the issue on the blog Gaming Today.

Says Nelson:

I just watched (listened) to the video you posted on your site. Needless to say, it was disappointing to see how some Xbox LIVE members behave. As you know, that is not the type of behavior we support. With over 8-million members, it’s unfortunate that some members decide to act like this.

Jonathan, the blogger writing the post on Gaming Today, goes on to say that anyone who encounters this sort of behavior should immediately report it and file a complaint and that he'd love to play with the readers on the site. He finishes off by saying:

This video was obviously an experiment of sorts to test the tolerance of Xbox Live gamers with very unsurprising results. The Xbox Live crowd doesn’t exactly have the best reputation out there. Personally, I get homophobic slurs thrown my way online even with a very innocuous gamertag. I mean seriously, what’s wrong with “RainbowUnicorns4Eva?”

Good for him getting out there and talking about this. I'm not much of a gamer myself, especially not the live stuff. Anyone out there ever filed a complaint before about homophobic behavior? Does Microsoft back up their promises?

Yesterday we linked to a video made by a gamer who, after selecting a suit of pink body armor and the handle "xxxGayBoyxxx", found himself the target of some pretty nasty anti-gay comments while playing Halo 3 online. (If you haven't seen the video, it's included after the jump, but be wary of NSFW language.) We contacted the gamer to ask him a few questions about the video ...

AfterElton.com: So what gave you the idea of picking pink body armor and the xxxGayBoyxxx handle for Halo 3? Was it strictly an experiment?
GayBoy: I bought my Xbox 360 the day Halo 3 came out and it's the only game I play. I started off with an ordinary gamertag and although I would regularly hear gay slurs, it wasn’t incessant, nor was it directed towards me. I then changed my name to something gayer, but still ambiguous, and that’s when things started getting uglier. That’s when I decided to change my gamertag, be proud, "come out", and start recording. Oh, I’ve always had the pink suit.

AE: Are you yourself gay?
GB: Yes, very gay.

AE: Do you think Halo 3 is a game that would particularly attract homophobic players? Maybe in World of Warcraft you could find some nice gay-friendly tinkers to hang with?
GB: My roommate is always on WoW and is part of gay guild. He hears the stuff that I go through and keeps trying to convert me onto WoW. Apparently it’s a friendlier place. Just 2 nights ago, someone said a gay joke on WoW and practically everyone verbally reprimanded him.