Board Thread:False Info and Speculative Discussion/@comment-25184427-20140722165407/@comment-7603754-20160412130209

DManCO wrote: Maria Trimble wrote: I think it's the fact that they are put there ONLY to draw in gay viewers. Like they make no other contributions than to draw in gay viewers. Precisely. This is exactly the same as the way things were when shows with entirely white main casts would have people of color as background characters, just to show "diversity" and to make the show more appealing to non-white audiences. The token gay characters are not really a part of the story on any meaningful level, they're just there to be the subject of a joke or otherwise be, well, a "token". Even before Danny and Ethan were a thing, most of Danny's scenes, or even references to Danny when he was mentioned but not present, made a point to call out his homosexuality. But he had virtually no significant interaction with the main characters other than that.

The not-so-subtle message being: "We're gay "inclusive", but not to the point where our token gays are actually relevant to the show or equivalent to the straight characters". I'd much MUCH rather have a token gay than none at all.