American TV struggles with gay characters. The idea of another way of life, often at odds with the white picket fence ideal endorsed by middle America, can seem a bit scary to TV bosses. This fear of the unknown can reduce gay characters to silly stereotypes and marginal sideshows, with the likes of Ellen DeGeneres and Will in Will and Grace providing rare cases of TV folk that avoid the insulting, yet all too easy clichés. And so it is with this less than stellar track record, that one of the top US shows has announced it’s decision to go gay.

Marc Cherry, (right with Teri Hatcher), creator of Desperate Housewives revealed during the ABC Press Tour that Wisteria Lane will become home to its first gay couple in season 4. "We're going to have the first male desperate housewives," said Cherry. "They will move into the old Applewhite house and one of the gay men will just have a fractious, hateful relationship with Teri Hatcher. We just started writing the episodes so I probably won't start casting for another few weeks."

This storyline is said to be auto-biographical with Cherry, an openly gay man, using his personal experiences of life in the suburbs as his starting point. "I just decided to have them move onto the street and have as many issues as any other couple. Susan wants to be so politically correct and show how open-minded she is and she puts her foot in her mouth instantly and it goes downhill from there. I'm basing it a little bit on my relationship with my neighbors."

Amusingly, when questioned on her character Susan clashing with the one of the gay characters, actress Teri Hatcher was quick to defend herself against any perceived homophobia: "Not over being gay!" Cherry swiftly looked to help his leading lady by adding "She doesn't know what they fight over yet. These [the actors] are the last person you want to go to about the storylines."

Could this newfound reluctance to include the actors in their character’s future developments be due to Eva Longoria famously blabbing about unaired storylines? Just a thought.

[via After Elton]