More LGBT Characters On TV Than Ever Before

Don't be surprised if vampires show up at your mom's next PFLAG meeting. The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) said today that True Blood is the 2010-2011 TV season's most inclusive show, with six regular and recurring gay characters. The series' stand-out gay and lesbian personalities are, of course, burger-flipping drag diva Lafayette and good-to-be-bad vampire Pam.

Our other favorites from GLADD's "Where We Are On TV" study are hottie-chef Scotty Wandell on Brothers & Sisters, Glee's fashion-conscious teen Kurt Hummel and Modern Family's ginger dad Mitchell Pritchett. Of the 587 regular characters on broadcast and cable TV this season, 23 are LGBT. That's almost a three percent increase from 2007 -- small, sure, but still significant. ABC leads the broadcast pack with 11 series regulars, and HBO features the most on cable with six characters. CBS scripted only one LGBT character out of its 125 series regulars, which might be reason enough to call up Katie Couric for an investigative report.

Or maybe Katie should look into why, even though the overall count is up, no broadcast network features transgender or black LGBT characters. Surely, we'd rather see those members of our community reflected on TV than, say, the living dead.

-- PHILLIP B. CROOK

Previously >Top Chef Just Desserts: Sticky and Sweet