![How did sitcoms confront -- or, in most cases, actively avoid -- the subject of homosexuality in the '70s and '80s?](https://lgbtqnation-com-assets.imgix.net/2015/08/Screen-Shot-2015-08-16-at-4.33.42-PM.png)
When did television first permit jokes about homosexuality? Matt Baume has been combing through sitcoms to figure out when queers stopped being viewed as a paralyzing threat to America and started becoming fully fleshed-out characters with rich love lives and barbed, piercing punchlines.
Take a look at some of his favorite early gay characters that shamelessly sashayed into old-school situation comedies.
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