8/5/11: ABC Family Ranks Tops for Homosexual Characters

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:00 — 1.4MB)

ABC Family became the second network to receive an excellent rating from a gay advocacy organization for its positive portrayal of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders.

The rating comes from GLAAD – the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation in a report that grades broadcast and cable networks for the quantity and quality of homosexual characters and issues included in their programming.

More than half of ABC Family programming included gay characters or discussions about homosexuality. The network had the highest percentage of hours — 55 percent — that included gays or references to them. In a year, the network’s homosexual content rose 18 percent.

The only other channel to receive an “excellent” rating in the report’s history was MTV in 2010