As a show about lesbians living in a predominantly heterosexual world, one might expect The L Word to be overrun with coming-out storylines. But in a welcome change, The L Word from its very first episode has drawn us into the world of lesbian and bisexual life beyond coming out--exploring the ups and downs of the personal and professional lives of several women who are already comfortable with their sexuality.

This is partly because most of the women on The L Word are in their mid to late 20's and 30's, and have already come to terms with their sexuality and its implications. It also helps that these women live in a very gay world, one in which most of the people they interact with are gay or gay-friendly. This isn't as unrealistic as some have suggested--scratch the surface of most big cities, small towns, and even rural communities, and you'll find a thriving network of lesbian and bisexual women similar to the one experienced by the women on The L Word.

But this post-coming out world is one we rarely see on TV. Most television shows that introduce lesbian characters--from L.A Law to Popular to ER--focus their storylines exclusively on the coming-out process, and drop or diminish their storylines significantly immediately afterwards. Taken collectively, these television shows leave the impression that being gay is ALL about coming out, as if that's the end of the story, instead of just the beginning.

Many series that have attempted to introduce a post-coming out narrative, like Once and Again, Dark Angel, Relativity, K Street, and Ellen's two sitcoms, were canceled; those that have, like Queer as Folk, The Wire, and All My Children, quickly resorted to the ever-predictable (and boring) pregnancy storyline for their lesbian characters, as if there's nothing else for lesbians to do post-coming out but settle down and have children.

On The L Word, on the other hand, we have storylines like Bette's power struggle at the museum and her tenuous relationship with her older sister, Tina and Bette's efforts to improve their increasingly strained relationship, Dana's humorous attempts to determine her love interest's sexuality, Alice's struggle to let go of an ex-girlfriend, and Marina's growing feelings for Jenny.

The danger to focusing on life beyond the coming-out process, of course, is that you can make being gay look unrealistically easy to heterosexual viewers. Fortunately, The L Word makes such such a conclusion impossible by introducing, but not overly focusing on, two ongoing storylines that address coming-out issues.

The first is Dana Fairbanks (Erin Daniels), an up-and-coming celebrity tennis player who has stayed closeted for fear that being open about her sexuality would hurt her career. "If I'm outed, I'm screwed," she tells Alice (Leisha Hailey) in the pilot. "Sponsors aren't exactly clamoring to have their stuff repped by big ol' lezzie tennis players."

In Episode 8 ("L'Ennui"), however, Dana is relieved and giddy to discover that this isn't completely true when Subaru unexpectedly creates an ad campaign positioning her as the gay Anna Kournikova, with the headline "Get Out. And Stay Out." But by then she's become a nervous wreck from trying to keep her sexuality a secret for so long, and even sacrificed her relationship with her girlfriend Lara (Lauren Lee Smith) because Lara wanted to be more public about their relationship.

When Dana comes out to her Republican parents in Episode 9 ("Listen Up") at an awards luncheon honoring her mother, it doesn't go very well. We don't hear the actual conversation between Dana and her parents, but their actions immediately afterward Dana's disclosure--as they make a beeline for their car, refusing to talk to Dana and leaving her standing in the driveway crying--clearly communicate their shock and unhappiness.

It does seem like a bit of a lost opportunity for The L Word to have glossed over the actual conversation, but Dana's experience with her family is definitely one to which many women can relate.

Unlike Dana, who has always known she's gay, writer Jenny Schecter (Mia Kirshner) has only recently discovered her attraction to women through an unexpected affair with cafe owner Marina (Karina Lombard). Jenny's focus up until now has been more on how this sexual awakening effects her relationship with her fiance Tim (Eric Mabius), who caught her cheating on him with Marina, than on the larger issue of her sexual identity.

As many women do in real life when they're first attracted to another woman, Jenny does not initially acknowledge to herself that she is attracted to women, only that she is attracted to Marina. In Episode 9, however, Jenny finally begins to frame her relationship with Marina in its larger context when she tells her friend Annette "I think I'm bisexual."

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