Editing Lesbian (section)

===Television===
{{Main|Lists of television programs with LGBT characters}}

Television began to address homosexuality much later than film. Local talk shows in the late 1950s first addressed homosexuality by inviting panels of experts (usually not gay themselves) to discuss the problems of gay men in society. Lesbianism was rarely included. The first time a lesbian was portrayed on network television was the NBC drama ''[[The Eleventh Hour (1962 TV series)|The Eleventh Hour]]'' in the early 1960s, in a teleplay about an actress who feels she is persecuted by her female director, and in distress, calls a psychiatrist who explains she is a latent lesbian who has deep-rooted guilt about her feelings for women. When she realizes this, she is able to pursue heterosexual relationships, which are portrayed as "healthy".<ref name="Tropiano2002">{{cite book |last=Tropiano |first=Stephen |date=2002 |title=Prime Time Closet: A History of Gays and Lesbians on TV |publisher=Applause Theater and Cinema Books |isbn=1-55783-557-8}}</ref>{{rp|pp=7–9}}

Invisibility for lesbians continued in the 1970s when homosexuality became the subject of dramatic portrayals, first with medical dramas (''[[The Bold Ones: The New Doctors|The Bold Ones]]'', ''[[Marcus Welby, M.D.]]'', ''[[Medical Center (TV series)|Medical Center]]'') featuring primarily male patients coming out to doctors, or staff members coming out to other staff members. These shows allowed homosexuality to be discussed clinically, with the main characters guiding troubled gay characters or correcting homophobic antagonists, while simultaneously comparing homosexuality to psychosis, criminal behavior, or drug use.<ref name="Tropiano2002"/>{{rp|pp=13–44}}

Another stock plot device in the 1970s was the gay character in a police drama. They served as victims of blackmail or anti-gay violence, but more often as criminals. Beginning in the late 1960s with ''[[N.Y.P.D. (TV series)|N.Y.P.D.]]'', ''[[Police Story (1973 TV series)|Police Story]]'', and ''[[Police Woman (TV series)|Police Woman]]'', the use of homosexuals in stories became much more prevalent, according to Vito Russo, as a response to their higher profiles in gay activism.<ref name="Russo1987"/>{{rp|pp=186–189}} Lesbians were included as villains, motivated to murder by their desires, internalized homophobia, or fear of being exposed as homosexual. One episode of ''Police Woman'' earned protests by the [[National Gay Task Force]] before it aired for portraying a trio of murderous lesbians who killed retirement home patients for their money.<ref name="Tropiano2002"/>{{rp|p=68}} NBC edited the episode because of the protests, but a [[sit-in]] was staged in the head of NBC's offices.<ref name="Tropiano2002"/>{{rp|pp=69}}

In the middle of the 1970s, gay men and lesbians began to appear as police officers or detectives facing coming out issues. This did not extend to CBS' groundbreaking show ''[[Cagney & Lacey]]'' in 1982, starring two female police detectives. CBS production made conscious attempts to soften the characters so they would not appear to be lesbians.<ref name="Tropiano2002"/>{{rp|pp=75–76}} In 1991, a bisexual lawyer portrayed by [[Amanda Donohoe]] on ''[[L.A. Law]]'' shared the first significant [[Lesbian kiss episode|lesbian kiss]]{{efn|''[[21 Jump Street]]'' included a kiss between series regular [[Holly Robinson Peete]] and guest star [[Katy Boyer]] in "A Change of Heart" (1990) but it did not inspire the critical or popular attention later such kisses would engender.<ref name="Capsuto????"/>{{rp|p=235}}}} on primetime television with [[Michele Greene]], stirring a controversy despite being labeled "chaste" by ''[[The Hollywood Reporter]]''.<ref name="Tropiano2002"/>{{rp|p=89}}

[[File:EllenDeGeneres1997Emmies.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Ellen DeGeneres with her Emmy Award in 1997. Her coming out in the media, as well as her sitcom, "ranks, hands down, as the single most public exit in gay history", changing media portrayals of lesbians in Western culture.<ref name="Streitmatter2009"/>|alt=A photograph of Ellen DeGeneres with her 1997 Emmy Award.]]

Though television did not begin to use recurring homosexual characters until the late 1980s, some early situation comedies used a stock character that author Stephen Tropiano calls "gay-straight": supporting characters who were quirky, did not comply with gender norms, or had ambiguous personal lives, that "for all purposes ''should'' be gay". These included Zelda from ''[[The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis]]'', Miss Hathaway from ''[[The Beverly Hillbillies]]'', and Jo from ''[[The Facts of Life (TV series)|The Facts of Life]]''.<ref name="Tropiano2002"/>{{rp|pp=185–186}} In the mid-1980s through the 1990s, sitcoms frequently employed a "coming out" episode, where a friend of one of the stars admits she is a lesbian, forcing the cast to deal with the issue. ''[[Designing Women]]'', ''[[The Golden Girls]]'', and ''[[Friends]]'' used this device with women in particular.<ref name="Tropiano2002"/>{{rp|pp=202–204}}

Recurring lesbian characters who came out were seen on ''[[Married... with Children]]'', ''[[Mad About You]]'', and ''[[Roseanne (TV show)|Roseanne]]'', in which a [[Don't Ask, Don't Tell (Roseanne)|highly publicized episode]] had ABC executives afraid a televised kiss between Roseanne and [[Mariel Hemingway]] would destroy ratings and ruin advertising. The episode was instead the week's highest rated.<ref name="Schlager1998"/>{{rp|pp=394, 399}} By far the sitcom with the most significant impact to the image of lesbians was ''[[Ellen (TV show)|Ellen]]''. Publicity surrounding Ellen's coming out episode in 1997 was enormous; [[Ellen DeGeneres]] appeared on the cover of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine the week before the airing of "[[The Puppy Episode]]" with the headline "Yep, I'm Gay". Parties were held in many U.S. cities to watch the episode, and the opposition from conservative organizations was intense. [[WBMA-LD|WBMA-LP]], the [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] affiliate in [[Birmingham, Alabama]], even refused to air the first run of the episode, citing conservative values of the local viewing audience, which earned the station some infamy and ire in the LGBT community. Even still, "The Puppy Episode" won an [[Emmy]] for writing, but as the show began to deal with Ellen Morgan's sexuality each week, network executives grew uncomfortable with the direction the show took and canceled it.<ref name="Tropiano2002"/>{{rp|pp=245–249}}

Dramas following ''L.A. Law'' began incorporating homosexual themes, particularly with continuing storylines on ''[[Relativity (TV series)|Relativity]]'', ''[[Picket Fences]]'', ''[[ER (TV series)|ER]]'', and ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' and ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Deep Space Nine]]'', both of which tested the boundaries of sexuality and gender.<ref name="Tropiano2002"/>{{rp|pp=128–136}} A show directed at adolescents that had a particularly strong cult following was ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''. In the fourth season of ''Buffy'', [[Tara Maclay|Tara]] and [[Willow Rosenberg|Willow]] admit their love for each other without any special fanfare and the relationship is treated as are the other romantic relationships on the show.<ref name="Tropiano2002"/>{{rp|pp=183–184}}

What followed was a series devoted solely to gay characters from network television. [[Showtime (TV network)|Showtime]]'s American rendition of ''[[Queer as Folk (North American TV series)|Queer as Folk]]'' ran for five years, from 2000 to 2005; two of the main characters were a lesbian couple. Showtime promoted the series as "No Limits", and ''Queer as Folk'' addressed homosexuality graphically. The aggressive advertising paid off as the show became the network's highest rated, doubling the numbers of other Showtime programs after the first season.<ref name="Tropiano2002"/>{{rp|pp=150–152}} In 2004, Showtime introduced ''[[The L Word]]'', a dramatic series devoted to a group of lesbian and bisexual women, running its final season in 2009.