There's a bisexual woman in "Bones" and a lesbian couple on "The Goode Family," an upcoming animated comedy. "Dirty Sexy Money" features a transsexual and "Brothers & Sisters" a gay marriage. In "Mad Men," the Emmy-winning drama set in the early '60s, there's Salvatore Romano, a self-loathing homosexual who marries a woman but pines for a male co-worker.

Never before have gay story lines been so prominent. Nor have there ever been so many gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender characters on television — 83 by a recent count from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, not counting reality shows, daytime dramas or gay-oriented cable networks.

Hollywood, with its depictions of cowboy lovers and lesbian neighbors, has done much to make gay men and women part of mainstream American life. At the same time, gay actors like Neil Patrick Harris and (more...)