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HBO has also done its share for lesbian visibility in 2005, though its results are decidedly more mixed. The movie Lackawanna Blues included one of the few African-American lesbians on television in 2005, and Rome included a problematic same-sex relationship between two women that eventually ended in incest. And although The Wire didn't actually air in 2005 (it's on hiatus until 2006) Sonja Sohn will be returning as openly lesbian African/Korean American cop, Detective Shakima Greggs.

On cable channel F/X, a basic cable channel that has aped its pay cable competitors by producing edgy shows like Rescue Me, lesbians and bisexual women were represented in two shows, Nip/Tuck and Starved.

On Nip/Tuck, Roma Maffia played openly lesbian Dr. Liz Cruz, though her character has not actually had a lesbian romance on the show despite numerous spoilers that pointed to that possibility during the current season.

On Starved, Laura Benanti played a bisexual anorexic singer-songwriter, a strange and potentially disturbing combination that, thankfully, was canned when the show was quickly canceled.

Looking to the Future

If 2005 was any guide, 2006 should be a promising year for lesbians and bisexual women on television. The premiere of three gay-centered cable channels, Logo, here! and Q Television, indicates that this country is more open than ever before to programming that includes gay characters. Though the majority of programming on the gay cable channels is about gay men, nonetheless they do attempt to be inclusive of lesbians, and hopefully in the future the programming mix will become more balanced.

Cable television has also continued to become more gay-friendly as more foreign programs are aired in the U.S. The premiere of U.K. drama Bad Girls on BBC America, the continued showing of queer-inclusive Canadian teen show Degrassi: The Next Generation on The N, and the BBC America showing of the made-for-TV movie Fingersmith are all signs of progress.

There are not enough lesbians on scripted daytime or primetime broadcast television, however; in fact, the numbers are lower than they've been in years. But the fact that one of the few sitcoms to survive the fall 2005 television season is Out of Practice is a positive sign. Let’s hope that Paula Marshall’s character, lesbian ER doctor Regina, doesn’t go the way of Dr. Kerry Weaver on ER--in other words, that Regina gets to go out on some dates once in a while like her heterosexual brothers.

There were some unfortunate moments in the representation of lesbians and bisexual women on TV in 2005—including numerous lesbian killers on network procedural crime dramas like CSI and Law and Order, the Wife Swap episode in which a conservative Christian mom accused a lesbian mom of being a sexual predator, and the WB reality show Starlet in which the contestants were forced to reenact the Fastlane hot tub scene.

But despite this and the other challenges that remain, overall, 2005 was a good year for lesbians on TV.