Channel-surfing the other night through American Idol and the late night talk shows, it struck me how much queerness has permeated the culture. Idol is infamous among some for its sophomoric "you're gay" banter between Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest.

But on Wednesday, Randy Jackson told a male contestant, "I like you too." And felt obliged to add, "Not in that way." Of course, he shouldn't feel the need to distance himself reflexively from any possibility of gayness, but it's progress of a sort to know how accepted the possibility is, not to mention the fact that his comment didn't cause titters. Simon casually told another male contestant, "You're very cute." Not, "Girls will find you very cute" or "You're very likable" but "You're very cute." And he's right. Tim Urban is very cute in a Shaun Cassidy sort of way.



On a rerun of the George Lopez talk show, super-gay-friendly Kathy Griffin made a bet with George about the Grammys and said that if she won, he had to let "one of my gays give you a gay makeover." Yes, the audience gasped and tittered. But Lopez just laughed in a no biggie way.

Craig Ferguson is always a font of gay teasing, both silly and sexy. When a viewer wrote in about dating a boy who claimed he was 90% straight, Ferguson made it a running gag. (Obviously, CraigyFerg -- his Twitter name and his gay nickname all wrapped up in one -- doesn't know about the Kinsey Scale.) He joked, "I don't think there are degrees of straight or gay. It's not like karate." Later he casually referred to his favorite website, www.kissablemen.com. (Sadly, it's fake.) And finally in a monologue he said in that naughty way of his, "Maybe I like restraints. Maybe I like...if you pull my hair and call me a dirty girl. Maybe I like that!"

None of it was earth-shaking. Some of it could be better. But if you watch any TV on any night, the amount of casual and often positive acknowledgment of queers and their place in society would blow the minds of someone who time-traveled from the 1950s to today.