Moreover, the show exposed the dubious credentials of such "experts" on the issue as anti-gay activist Paul Cameron, the author of discredited studies that purport to demonstrate the unfitness of gays and lesbians as parents; and countered those studies with more respectable sociological research. Most importantly, it not only offered a forum for O'Donnell, but it also portrayed positively the loving household of gay parents Steven Lofton and Roger Croteau, who--because of Florida's ban on gay adoption--may have a ten-year-old boy taken from them despite their having raised him from infancy.

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Perhaps the most important harbinger of change is the growth of niche broadcasting, especially the development of television that caters particularly to glbtq audiences. For example, Q Television Network, which launched in 2005, offers original programming that includes queer perspectives on news and culture. LOGO, a channel of MTV that launched in 2005, promises to offer a range of original series, documentaries, and specials, and to team up with CBS News to cover glbtq news stories in a "professional and authentic voice."

One of the pioneers in producing news shows aimed at glbtq audiences is QTV Newsmagazine, which debuted in 1995 as a local San Francisco public accessoffering. QTV Newsmagazine now airs on Comcast cable channels and is also available via the Internet. Hosted by Executive Producer Rahn Fudge, the newsmagazine offers programs that originate both in San Francisco and in Key West, Florida.

Recent Developments

In recent years, especially since the advent of the 2008 Presidential campaign, mainstream coverage of glbtq topics and issues has vastly improved.

More and more, television news shows, both national and local ones, present news about homosexuality straightforwardly and with an understanding that such news is of interest to an increasingly wide and general audience.

This improvement is related to the fact that glbtq issues have themselves become increasingly mainstream and part of a national dialogue. For example, the quest for marriage equality and the end of Don't Ask, Don't Tell could hardly be ignored. Moreover, increasing acceptance and support for glbtq causes have also propelled fairer and more sympathetic coverage of glbtq people and issues.

As the political struggle for gay rights has intensified, more and more gay people have come out and demanded that they be portrayed fairly in the media. Their efforts have been supported not simply by the traditional media watchdog, GLAAD, but also by other organizations that monitor the depiction of glbtq issues, especially the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, which works within the news industry to foster fair and accurate coverage of glbtq news, and Equality Matters, a group that monitors the depiction of gay issues in the news and corrects anti-gay misinformation.

In addition, the proliferation of gay political blogs has also contributed to increased and fair coverage of gay issues on television news. Because so many glbtq political blogs are linked to each other, the gay blogosphere has become an echoing chamber in which blogs have the potential to reach large audiences and sometimes to make local stories into national ones that cannot be ignored by the mainstream media.

A story posted on one blog often goes "viral" when it is picked up by other blogs and reposted on still more until the mainstream media is forced to give it attention, often by linking it to a larger glbtq issue such as employment discrimination or bullying of gay youth.

Moreover, the mainstream media, especially the 24-hour national news channels, have come to mirror more clearly the country's ideological divisions, with "forward leaning" MSNBC regarded as liberal, CNN as moderate, and Fox News as conservative.

One effect of this development, in which a particular news channel deliberately appeals to a particular ideological demographic, is that advocacy of glbtq rights has become routine (or, to use the favorite word of homophobes, normalized) at least on liberal and moderate channels. And even on a conservative channel like Fox News, gay issues cannot be avoided, even if they are typically presented negatively and unfairly.