As far as the treatment of LGBT characters in media is concerned, why not look at the treatment of Captain Jack Harkness in Dr. Who and Torchwood? This is a character who comes from a time when all this gender-specific stuff is a long way in the past, and who is written by a gay man (Russell T. Davies). As far as I can tell, he's treated exactly the same as a straight character (albeit a little bit more flamboyant, but that's his personality!) who just happens to kiss a man every now and again.

Of course, like Rich I'm looking at this from the outside, as it were, so I'd be interested to hear what actual LGBT people think of the character?