I can't remember where I heard it first, but I recall someone saying that in order to make gay characters palatable (read: non-offensive) for a "mainstream" (ie. straight) audience, they are generally portrayed in one of two ways: the eunich (Will) a character who is romantically inert (no bf, no physically romantic scenes, no post-coital scenes) that it is hard to think of him as gay; and the jester (Jack) a character so over-the-top (ie. the stereotypical flaming queen) -- in both cases, it desexualizes the character and makes him a non-threat to traditional values/mindsets. As gay men, we can get the in-joke (there are many great one-liners from all the characters) -- but do straight people, even the ones who consider themselves well-versed with "the gays"?