EastEnders, homosexual content

The 150-odd people who bothered to complain to the BBC about homosexual content on EastEnders could have saved wasting their time. On Tuesday the much-publicised kiss between Christian and Lee took place, and hours later the BBC added its response on their complaints website. The BBC said "We approach our portrayal of homosexual relationships in the same way as we do heterosexual relationships."

But the truth is that the BBC has again used a gay storyline in a negative way.

In 2003 there was the New Year's Eve "lesbian" kiss between Zoe and Kelly which turned out not to be lesbian at all. Then more recently the awful portrayal of Sonia and Naomi's relationship. Yesterday's episode of EastEnders included scenes pathetically reminiscent of the first time Christian appeared in the soap. This time Lee was the incredibly rude gay man causing all the problems. Lee, it seems, had no time for anyone similar in age to himself. Plenty of stereotyping and, as usual, the relationship has apparently (no-one can be sure in soaps) ended almost before it began.

Homophobes should be thanking the BBC, not complaining.