4. Made for Reality TV

As all this was going on, the reality genre was slowly taking over television. As LGBT people were making their way into scripted television at the same time, it was only natural we would be included in shows like The Real World, Survivor, and Big Brother. People like Richard Hatch — an aggressive, scheming competitor — gave the world a more complex view of what LGBT people were like, and it turned out they were just like straight people. ¡Que sorpresa!

Of course, there were other reasons we as a community were made for reality TV. Since the genre increasingly traded in living, breathing stock characters and stereotypes, people realized that, well, our stereotypes were just more fun. Stylists! Drag queens! Camp! Bitchiness! Designers! Promiscuity! Makeovers! There was a period where any remake-your-life show worth its salt — whether the target was your wardrobe, your bedroom, or your makeup routine — needed a homosexual to make it to the air.

People who are just coming out, as I was at the time, often have a period of nearly militant queerness; when you feel like you can be yourself for the first time, you want to make goddamn sure everyone knows it. For me, this was about the most flamingly gay I have ever been in my life. And I had so many role models to choose from!

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was the epitome of the idea that homos — and again, we're still mostly talking gay men here — were not just fairies in the derogatory sense, but actual fairies who would turn your pumpkin of a life into a glamorous carriage. Thankfully, we've moved to more nuanced versions of this idea. The LGBT people of shows like Project Runway, Top Chef, and So You Think You Can Dance may excel in fields typically associated with gayness, but the shows emphasize that to excel at any of these pursuits requires enormous talent and dedication. On the other extreme, more recent shows like RuPaul's Drag Race and Drag U have simply embraced everything campy, trashy, and stereotypical with a surprising amount of wit and depth, subverting competition and makeover shows by taking them to their extremes.

5. The Freedom to be Terrible

If you read the recent report from GLAAD, you know that there are currently more LGBT characters on TV than ever before, and not because of niche channels like Logo or here!. We're all over the place, in more variations and versions than ever before. Rattle off the names of almost any critically lauded series or ratings juggernaut, and you'll probably find at least one LGBT recurring or main character: Glee, The Good Wife, Revenge, Modern Family, Mad Men, Downton Abbey, True Blood. And we finally have actual lesbians, bisexuals, trans people, and LGBT people of color. (Note: that does not mean we have enough, because we don't. LGBT representation on TV is still overwhelmingly white and male.)

And there are other exciting developments: LGBT characters are no longer strictly adults or conflicted and confused teens. An episode of Glee I happened to catch last year — disco-themed; I don't recommend it — featured two gay characters, one lesbian, one bisexual girl, and a high-school aged transwoman, all confidently embracing their identities. Teen shows like Teen Wolf, Pretty Little Liars, and Awkward. regularly feature young, happy LGBT characters, a phenomenon that was simply nonexistent when I was still in school.

What's most exciting to me, though, is that LGBT characters, and shows that explicitly deal with LGBT themes, have the freedom — if I'm being blunt — to totally suck. Think of The New Normal or Partners, both of which premiered this year and both of which critics have lambasted. What's wrong with these shows? Stale comedy, awkward tonal shifts, bad dialogue, lack of characterization: you name it. But we've come to a place where I can say these things and not feel the tinge of guilt and sadness that I used to. When you can only see your identity reflected in a handful of places, you're willing to overlook a lot. And to criticize a show like Queer As Folk felt like a disservice to The Cause: it's all we've got! Cut it some slack! But now, we have options. We can choose and we can be critical. And that feels great.

Want to meet someone to complain about Glee with? Meet them on Nerve.