Re: Three Big Holdouts

1. Country Music. A perfect example of this holdout is Chely Wright. Chely came out of the closet some time back as a lesbian, yet country music has yet to honor her courage by welcoming her at a major country music event, e.g., this years CMA Awards.

TBH, although it does seem to me that country music is notable for that (which is not really surprising given its main audiences)... I pretty much don't see the music world as all that gay-friendly in general, certainly not when compared to the acting world. Pop excepted, and pop-derived genres such as all the club and rave genres, I don't see music as open to gays as the acting (and dancing) professions. (And of course, in some countries even pop is not that open, but I gather you were speaking about American media, given how you didn't mention any foreign media)

As for Disney and Nick... (and forgetting for a second about Disney's complete policies, which do contextualize this as more than only what I am saying) Alex Asimov is probably correct. The assumption is that teens and preteens who watch the shows are de facto asexual, not thinking about any kind of sex at all. In that case, dealing openly with sexual orientation issues could be seen as not adding anything of value to the audience yet potentially generating unwanted controversy. (Exhibit 1 to 1000: every time Miley has been too little clothed or dancing too much like yeah, for the antis. Even if it didn't happen on Hannah. :p) Of course we know that is plainly false: kids can and do have sexual orientations and sexual desires; but the mainstream doesn't agree, and the mainstream is what they cater to. Look at how any "crush" subplot is treated - even for a hetero subplot, they are rather silly and unnecessarily devoided of very real elements of sexuality that are present in real life tweens and teens.

But they really should hire a Princess Boy to play a girl in some show.