Although the kiss between Abby and C. J. was actually just a quick peck on the lips viewed from behind one of the women, it was enough to re-ignite the furious debate over depictions of same-sex desire on television that began in 1989. On November 7, 1989, ABC aired the "Strangers" episode of the "yuppie" series thirtysomething, in which the series' two main gay characters, Peter (Peter Frechette) and Russell (David Marshall Grant), are introduced and, in due course, fall into bed together.

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Joe Wlodarz has noted that the most sensational and controversial aspect of the episode is the physical enactment of the men's desire for each other (both insinuated and visually confirmed) as they share a post-coital moment in bed and talk about their experience of losing friends to AIDS.

However, according to Richard Kramer's script, the bedroom scene was to be preceded by a seduction scene in which Russell kisses Peter and to be concluded with an affectionate embrace in bed. The viewing audience never witnessed these two moments, prompting gay author Armistead Maupin to observe that the gay kiss--and particularly the gay male kiss--can only be imagined to be "repulsive to most viewers because they have been systematically denied sight of it."

A similar censoring befell a proposed kiss for Melrose Place's hapless Matt Fielding during the 1994 season finale. In the final episode, the visiting best friend of main character Billy Campbell (Andrew Shue) falls for Matt, and a scene was shot in which the two characters kiss before they retire to separate beds. However, as Larry Gross notes, conservative critics chimed in with protests and threats of boycotts. In response, the network altered the scene. Instead of kissing, the men shook hands, exchanged a meaningful glance and moved towards each other, before the camera cut away to Billy looking through the blinds of his apartment with a shocked expression on his face.

However, while gay male expressions of sexual desire remained firmly in the closet, lesbian kisses appeared more frequently and with less fanfare. On January 11, 1997, an episode of the ABC series Relativity showed a close-up, ten-second kiss between Rhonda Roth (Lisa Edelstein) and her girlfriend Suzanne (Kristin Dattilo). Surprisingly, no network affiliates pulled the episode from their schedule, even though ABC heavily marketed the show's content.

Speaking with Advocate columnist Robert Pela, GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) spokesperson Alan Klein noted that the lack of negative response to the show was clearly a sign that times and perceptions are changing.

Changing Perceptions and Breakthrough Representations

Despite changing social and media perceptions, however, there is still a lingering reticence on the part of broadcast network executives to televise overt displays of homosexual affection and desire. It is unlikely that broadcast networks will ever reach the levels of queer representational acceptance that cable and subscriber networks have shown recently, but there have nevertheless been changes even on broadcast networks, such as the coming-out in 2000 of Dr. Kerry Weaver (Laura Innes) on NBC's ER and Willow's (Alyson Hannigan) getting a girlfriend on the WB's Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Nonetheless, cable and subscriber networks have in recent years been far more pathbreaking in their depictions of homosexual content. For instance, the broadcast networks would not have dared attempt what subscriber network Showtime executed in 2000 with the debut of Queer As Folk. Billed in 1999 as the first all-gay soap opera, Queer as Folk exploded on Britain's Channel 4 before being transplanted, for U.S. viewers, to Pittsburgh.

Produced by life partners Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman (who also created the series Sisters and 1985's television movie An Early Frost), Queer As Folk offers an unflinching, no-holds-barred slice of queer life, including foam parties, nipple piercing, and recreational drug use. There is also no shortage of erotically charged same-sex lovemaking scenes, usually between amoral Lothario Brian Kinney (Gale Harold) and his much younger boyfriend Justin Taylor (Randy Harrison).