This week AfterElton.com published our Fall TV Preview Guide outlining what will be of gay interest on your television this fall. So what is the outlook for the upcoming season? Is gay visibility improving? If not, why not?

When it comes to scripted gay characters, it’s a mixed bag at best. Of the 25 shows we list as having scripted gay characters (not counting shows from either of the gay channels here! or Logo [AfterElton.com’s parent company]), only eight of those characters qualify as truly significant ones appearing on the majority of their show’s episodes and having actual ongoing storylines.

These include Kevin Walker and Scotty Wandell from Brothers & Sisters, Marc St. James from Ugly Betty, Brian and Steve from The Sarah Silverman Program, Calvin on Greek, Larry from Do Not Disturb and Rodney from The Starter Wife.

Even then, only Kevin, Brian, and Steve qualify as leading roles while Do Not Disturb is the only new broadcast show with a major gay character. (The Starter Wife is on USA.)

Marc (Ugly Betty), Steve and Brian (The Sarah Silverman Program), Rodney (The Starter Wife) , Larry (Do Not Disturb), and Calvin (Greek)

Not exactly bursting at the seams with significant gay characters, are we?

Indeed, the rest of the characters are more minor in nature appearing strictly as supporting characters with only a few lines per episode if they even appear at all. Examples of this include Eric on Gossip Girls, Andrew Van de Kamp, and Bob and Lee on Desperate Housewives as well as the almost never seen anymore Joe the bartender on Grey’s Anatomy.

Something striking concerning this issue is that of eight major characters mentioned above, five of them are on shows created or helmed by gay men. Brothers & Sisters was created by Jon Robin Baitz with Greg Berlanti as an executive producer. Silvio Horta is the executive producer for Ugly Betty, Abraham Higgingbotham is the creator of Do Not Disturb and Sean Smith is the creator of Greek.

And of the remaining three characters, all are on shows run by and/or created by women including Sarah Silverman and Gigi Levangie.

This trend holds true for the more minor gay characters as well. Desperate Housewives features three gay characters and is the creation of out writer Marc Cherry. The out Alan Ball is in charge of True Blood featuring at least two gay characters (one of which may turn out to have a larger part as the series goes on). Little Britain USA, the comedy show from the U.K., will feature at least two significant gay parts (which were not counted as part of the total given the sketch nature of the show). Lipstick Jungle is adding two gay characters this fall and is executive produced by the out Oliver Goldstick with Dan Bucatinsky as consulting producer. Pushing Daisies, also adding one very minor gay character, comes from the mind of Bryan Fuller.

Clockwise from upper left: Silvio Horta, Abraham Higginbotham, Greg Berlanti, Matt Lucas, Mark Cherry, Patrick Sean Smith, Alan Ball

Women have also created or helped create a disproportionate number of this fall’s minor gay characters including Tina Fey (30 Rock), Rina Mimoun (Privileged), and Shonda Rhimes (Grey’s Anatomy).