What a change in my lifetime

I remember when characters like Will Truman and Jack McFarland were scarce on tv. Nowadays, there are gay characters on major shows such as Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, and The Office. Ellen DeGeneres is taking over Oprah's talk show crown. There are also tons of gay people on reality tv (Project Runway anyone?).

The CW will be expanding people's horizons this fall when a transsexual will be one of the models competing to win the title on America's Next Top Model. This raises interesting issues. Is ANTM doing this as a ratings stunt? Is Isis a pre-op or post-op transsexual? Will she tell the other competitors? Will the other competitors feel comfortable sleeping in the same room or sharing the same bathroom? I have watched most of the seasons of ANTM and I can bet that there will be at least one ignorant model on the show. It might be my sociology background, but I find this fascinating.