Gays on television today is nothing new.

And we can thank Ellen DeGeneres’s watershed moment in April 1997 when she came out on her sitcom "Ellen."

Today’s openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) television personalities are Neil Patrick Harris, Jane Lynch, Rachel Maddow, and Rosie O’Donnell, to name just a few.

And these personalities have helped pave the way in terms of our acceptance in society and in terms of our civil rights issues.