Desperate Housewives is a household name. The show which burst on the scene in 2004 telling the story of Susan, Bree, Edie, Lynette, and Gabrielle, following the suicide of their friend Mary Alice—has followed the textbook rules for good drama since its original air date. Starting with a fantastic hook—the suicide of Mary Alice in the opening scenes of the first episode–combined with the intrigue and mystery akin to the best dark dramas, the show worked its way into viewers’ homes and hasn’t moved since. The real hook, though, is that while drama and intrigue drew us in, it was the realism of the Housewives themselves that have us tuning in every week. Watching Lynette struggle to balance her desire to be a soccer mom while carving out some satisfaction from life by being successful in her career can appeal to anyone that has children. Tuning in to Susan’s comedic attempts to land Mike Delfino in the early seasons can appeal to anyone who is still out there playing the dating game. Throughout the years, Desperate Housewives has woven its dramatic tales nearly seamlessly to the arguably normal lives of its heroins.

Murder, suicide, extortion, blackmail—these are some of the more intriguing plot hooks that we’ve seen. Nothing more than we’ve seen in other prime time dramas from Dallas to Dynasty or even Beverly Hills 90210. Perhaps that’s why, by comparison to such drastic situations, the addition of a gay son (Bree’s son Andrew was outed in 2006) and more recently a neighbor who makes her living as a stripper seem somewhat tame. The portrayal of a mother embracing her openly gay son in and of itself is a victory for the BLGT community. The truly sad thing, is that there have been little to no story lines regarding Andrew Van De Camp. More recently, however, the addition of Robin—the stripper is offering hope once again. The last two episodes in the month of February have seen Housewife Katherine Mayfair struggling with sexual fantasies about her new roommate—former stripper Robin. Robin—soon after joining the show, has identified herself as dating women, though it isn’t clear at this point if she is bisexual or a lesbian. Katherine on the other hand, is now revealed to be—apparently—bisexual.

Desperate Housewives is not the only prime time show making this a part of an ongoing story. Housewives‘ sister show Grey’s Anatomy (both air on ABC) has an ongoing story line in which Doctor Callie Torres—dating and even married to men—began a relationship with another woman and now seems to identify as a lesbian though it could still be argued that she is bisexual. Competing network, Fox, has ongoing same sex stories the drama House, for example, one of the female medical students on the show, known as “Thirteen”, is openly bisexual. The crime drama Bones features a scientist working at the Jeffersonian Institute who is an openly bisexual woman.

The common thread of course is that all of these characters are women, and so this does lend concern to the adage that bisexuality is okay—as long as both women are sexy. The bigger picture, in this case, is far more important. Openly bisexual relationships amongst the Housewives of Wisteria Lane is a far cry from the days where same sex relationships just “weren’t done.” Better still, is the positive portrayal of these relationships. Katherine and Robin, very loving and caring with each other—while elsewhere on our televisions we can see Doctors and Scientists as openly bisexual—certainly not deviants or the dregs of society. This sort of open portrayal can only lead to more positivity for the BLGT community—and we should all tune in to support it and of course to see what happens next.