All My Children's recent decision to initiate a triangle between Bianca (Eden Riegel), Maggie (Elizabeth Hendrickson) and Lena (Olga Sosnovska) has received mixed reactions from fans. Some saw the a triangle as a sign of progress, because it meant that not only is there, for the first time, actually enough lesbian or bisexual women on a TV series to even have a triangle, and a sign that All My Children was finally prepared to give these characters equal treatment (since love triangles are de rigeur between heterosexual soap characters).

Others believed this was a positive development because Maggie's coming-out process--from denial, to confusion, to acceptance of her sexuality--realistically portrays what a lot of lesbian and bisexual women experience. This is a journey viewers never really got to see with Bianca, since she had already accepted her sexuality when she returned to Pine Valley after her long absence, or with Lena, since her angst when she fell for Bianca was less around the fact that she was attracted to a woman than that she was attracted to a woman she was trying to manipulate at the time.

But others were ambivalent or downright disapproving of the triangle storyline, fearing it reinforced the idea that straight women can be "converted" by lesbians, and/or that lesbians and straight women can't be friends with sex becoming an issue.

Personal preference for one pairing or another also played a large role in viewer reaction to the triangle. Die-hard Lianca (Lena-and-Bianca) fans were dismayed at what they perceived as yet another disruption to Bianca and Lena's relationship, which finally seemed to be getting back on track after being derailed by the baby-and-murder plot that has been consuming the All My Children storyline for months.

The BAM (Bianca-and-Maggie) fans, on the other hand, were excited about the possibility of finally seeing payoff for their two-year campaign to turn Maggie and Bianca into more than friends. Although when Bianca declared her feelings for Maggie in January 2003, Maggie insisted she was only into guys, her sudden and unexpected decision to kiss Bianca on early February 2004 indicates that Maggie is reconsidering this statement.

But the glacial pace at which the triangle is developing (even by daytime TV standards) has left almost all fans of the lesbian characters disappointed. Whether you're rooting for the triangle or not, it is hard to deny that the poor execution of this storyline has effectively sidelined a satisfactory development of any relationship for Bianca.

Since the triangle was officially kicked off by Maggie's rekindled interest in Bianca last month, the storyline has hardly progressed at all, and seems to consist almost solely of revolving scenes of Lena and Maggie glaring at each other while Bianca rattles on cluelessly about her baby or her mother.

Meanwhile, Maggie continues to deny her feelings for Bianca by spending most of her time with pretty-boy Jaime, and Bianca and Lena's "dating" is barely discernable from their relationship when they were friends--that is, it consists mostly of talking about Bianca's baby and stroking each other's hair.

The bottom line is that neither relationship is currently portrayed in a way that gives the viewers much to get excited about. In fact, it's hard to come up with a more boring and drawn-out love triangle on All My Children in recent history--which makes it almost impossible to avoid concluding that the triangle is just another stall tactic to let All My Children avoid putting Bianca in a romantic situation.

Making matters worse is the recent news that Olga Sosnovska is voluntarily leaving All My Children soon for a full-time role on the BBC series MI5, and rumors from less-reliable sources that Maggie is headed for a heterosexual relationship around the same time. Lena's departure from Pine Valley will be an unfortunate loss for All My Children, since Sosnovska brought a dynamic energy to the show and Lena's relationship with Bianca was one of the more interesting ones in the last few years, but a good career move for Sosnovska given how little screen time her character has on All My Children.

Theoretically, with Lena gone there should be no more obstacles to Maggie and Bianca's relationship, except the biggest obstacle of all: the writers' demonstrated reluctance to create fully-realized lesbian characters and relationships. The character of Maggie has languished on All My Children in the last several months, with mostly supporting storylines; if the rumors of her upcoming heterosexual relationship are true, perhaps the writers felt that giving Maggie a boyfriend will be the best way to give her character more attention while avoiding the controversial aspects of finally developing a romantic relationship between Maggie and Bianca.

All of which leaves Bianca and All My Children's lesbian storyline...well, nowhere, unless All My Children decides to introduce yet another lesbian or bisexual character with whom Bianca can have a non-relationship. With Eden Riegel's contract up for renewal in May, it wouldn't be surprising if Riegel herself were to look for greener pastures elsewhere (like her upcoming guest stint on NBC's American Dreams).

But even if Riegel doesn't leave, it seems obvious that All My Children is not ready to fully support lesbian relationships on the show, and in fact, may not be ready any time soon. Despite having led viewers on for months, even years, with the promise of a real relationship for Bianca while milking it for all the PR value they can get, All My Children has left no plot twist unturned--including increasingly incredulous storylines involving rape, pregnancy, and suicide attempts--in their quest to distract viewers from noticing that they've never delivered on that promise.

Lesbian visibility still has a long way to go on television, but it's unlikely that many lesbian and bisexual viewers are going to continue to settle for All My Children's double-standards; with the increasing proliferation of TV lesbian characters in actual lesbian relationships (on recent shows like The L Word and Nip/Tuck, and recently canceled shows like Buffy and Once and Again), we don't have to.