TOMMY (sitting on the bed): So your mom says...
COLLEEN (whirling around to face him): Dad, I have a girlfriend, okay? What's the big deal? You're the one who always said not to judge people by the color of their skin. Not to jump to conclusions about people. How we could always come tell you anything and it would be okay, because the one thing you wouldn't put up with was us lying or being dishonest, right?
TOMMY: Yeah.
COLLEEN: So I'm being honest, okay? (gets up and gestures passionately) I have a girlfriend who I really, really, really like and who is really, really smart. And we get in trouble for kissing in the hallways when there are like kids having sex in the stairwells. It's a joke!
TOMMY (nodding): It's a travesty.
COLLEEN (pauses): What?
TOMMY: It's wrong.
COLLEEN (surprised): What, the me having a girlfriend thing, or the sex in the hallways thing?
TOMMY: No, the whole injustice thing. They shouldn't be, uh, persecuting you.
COLLEEN (sitting down next to Tommy on the bed): Really?
TOMMY: Yeah, you should be free to be who you are. That's why your grandparents came to this country, so you could be a lesbian if you wanted to be.
COLLEEN: They did?
TOMMY: Kinda...well...yeah.
COLLEEN: So you're not mad?
TOMMY (hugging her): No, no, honey. Not at all.

"Well it's official," Tommy tells his wife after leaving Colleen's room. "She gone lesbo." When Janet expresses alarm, Tommy assures her, "I'm sure it's just a phase, I mean didn't you kiss a couple of girls in high school?" "No, I didn't." "Oh, well that must have been wishful thinking. Anyway, we better get stock in some k.d. lang albums."

Tommy's easy acceptance of his daughter's lesbian relationship appears to stem more from a dislike (and distrust) of men in general, and of his daughter's previous boyfriend (referred to as "that Murphy kid") in particular, than being a champion of lesbianism. But whatever his motivation, his supportive reaction is a far cry from the negative reaction most TV parents have to a child's revelation that she's lesbian or bisexual.

From the hilarity of Tommy's assertion that his ancestors came to America "so you could be a lesbian" to his support (and even outright glee) of his daughter's lesbian relationship, this is a lesbian storyline that defies expectations--just like the series itself.