Gratuitous Lesbianism

This post isn't about homosexuality.  I promise.  This post is about a trend I have noticed in the land of Television.  Over the past several months, I have thrice had the occasion to be watching network television when, out of nowhere, for no reason, one of the characters is announced to be gay.  Each time it has been the same.  A female character's love life is brought into the show, and lo and behold, she's in a relationship with another woman, and there's always a man who thinks he can bring her back.  The women, of course, are portrayed as beautiful, happy and smart, and the guy is always of the "handsome but full of himself" variety.  

Now I can understand that some might think of this as a good plot twist or sub-story (indeed, Seinfeld had a quite funny episode devoted to the topic), but the problem is, each time I have seen this idea used, it is completely out of step with the rest of the show.  There is simply no need to make one of the characters a lesbian.  It does nothing to further the story line; indeed, it's not related at all.  It's like someone down at the station inadvertently stuck a scene from some other program into the one I was watching.

Of course, I know what's going on here.  It's the land of Television's way of saying, "Hey, everybody, look how cool and sexy and smart these lesbians are!  Isn't being gay great?"  Fair enough, I guess it's their show.  But it seems to me that they are sacrificing their show's quality by inserting random pro-gay commercials into the plot.  

At least when I preach, it's in context.