With Ellen DeGeneres recently marrying girlfriend Portia DeRossi in one of California’s first legally recognised same-sex marriages, and with high profile movers and shakers lending their support – emotionally and financially – to the cause of homosexual awareness, Hollywood has got a whole lot gayer of late.
Aside from the high profile support from A-Listers Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Steven Spielberg, all contributing funds fighting the removal of same sex marriage legislation, the small screen has seen a dramatic rise in the amount of gay and lesbian characters on TV.
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) announced it was a positive step forward to see American Television networks increase the amount of homosexual characters in prime time by more than double compared to last year.
There are now 16 regular characters on American Prime time, which accounted for 2.6 percent of all regular characters on T.V.
"As the networks gradually add characters from all backgrounds and all walks of life to prime-time programming, more and more Americans are seeing their LGBT (Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transexul) friends and neighbors reflected on the small screen," GLAAD President Neil Giuliano said.
While the small screen has landed a victory, the big screen still has a fight on its hands with Proposition 8 - The November ballot initiative that proposes the overturning of a Californian Supreme Court decision to legalize same-sex marriage.
Veteran director Steven Spielberg and wife Kate Capshaw donated $100,000 to fight the initiative, matching the amount contributed by acting couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
"By writing discrimination into our state constitution, Proposition 8 seeks to eliminate the right of each and every citizen in our state to marry regardless of sexual orientation. Such discrimination has NO place in California's constitution, or any other." The couple said in a statement.