In 1997, when Ellen DeGeneres announced on the cover of Time magazine that she was a lesbian, and her television character "came out" on the situation comedy Ellen, media attention was unprecedented. Partly due to a changing social climate that tolerated gays and lesbians more than in the past and partly due to the fact that television and film depictions of homosexuals were becoming more visible and accurate, a historic moment in media occurred. For one of the few times in television history, the lead character in a major program was homosexual and not shown as a lonely, evil, or homicidal character.

The history of the depiction of gays and lesbians in the mainstream media is a tale of negative and oppressive images. For some time their stories have been limited to suicide, murder, and evil. Vito Russo in...