ABC's Desperate Housewives has its first desperate houseguys.

No doubt some of the Christianist will have their panties in a wad over the addition of a gay couple to the Desperate Housewives character line up, even though I am sure the show is already on their "condemned list." My feeling is that the more gay characters there are on television - especially in rolls that show we are basically like everyone else - the better. Here's what USA Today reports on the new characters:

[T]hey may be the most unconventionally conventional gay couple on broadcast television. The relationship of Bob (One Life to Live's Tuc Watkins) and Lee (Judging Amy's Kevin Rahm) is less than idyllic. There's marital tension. One likes the city, one likes suburbia. One's conciliatory, one's acerbic. One tries to blend in, the other couldn't care less. They have secrets. In other words, they're not that much different than most of the straight couples on Wisteria Lane.

"In capturing the gay suburban experience, the joke is they have the same issues as everyone else," says series creator Marc Cherry, who eschewed stereotypical characterizations of gay men. "The politically correct thing would have been to have everyone get along with them. But there's a lot of comedy to be played against type."

Both actors relish the high-profile roles. "Marc should be applauded for creating gay characters who aren't issue-oriented. A lot of the time, gay characters are known through issues — coming out or health problems," Watkins says. "There are a few cliché gay jokes on Desperate Housewives. But Bob and Lee aren't stereotypical. They have horrible taste. They have a sense of humor. They're a little mean. They're certainly not PC."