Link (http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/entertainment/16532037.htm)
Once a seemingly taboo on-screen subject and a private sexual preference, homosexuality has hit Hollywood, both on and off-screen. Gay characters have all genres of television, even casting gay characters on popular reality shows.
Many think of Three's Company and the innuendo with John Ritter's Jack Tripper character pretending to be gay as the first mention of homosexuality on television. Around the same time, Billy Crystal played a gay man on Soap. As the years went on, more and more gay characters were introduced and over time their depiction evolved. Scott Preisel, board member of NEPA Pride, says that Hollywood has humanized "those we do not understand."