DrFilth
Homosexuality was decriminalised nearly half a century ago - not THAT recent!
In the past decade or so, society has changed so fundamentally, that to exclude the representation of gay/lesbian relationships in soaps would actually look strange.
More and more straight people either know 'out' gay people either at work, as friends or in their families, that old social taboos are beginning to erode, in the same way that we view bi-racial relationships.
For example - did you know that there was an episode of Star Trek that wa banned for years in the US, because it featured a kiss between Captan Kirk (white