Oh my God, I remember Zoe on Emmerdale – I grew up in Dublin, but even that was a must-see for me. And I never watched Emmerdale at any other time..

Yeah, I still think that some lesbian visibility is better than none. Having said that, I certainly think there’s a case to be made – especially by those of us who are out and already comfortable with ourselves – for speaking up to challenge negative stereotypes, marketing gimmickery for the lads (I’m looking at you, Katy Perry), and “part-time” lesbians.

Its obvious from the above comment that you’re not from a rural background. I agree with Annie Aura and Hal in respects that when you are from a rural background, when you are somewhere that you’ve never seen a gay person, no access to the likes of GCN or Diva magazine it makes a huge difference. Obviously not so much an issue now with the internet and Belong to but spare a thought for the teenager who has never seen or heard of anything gay.

How on earth do they know they’re not alone? I thought I was only gay in the village. A small village in rural ireland. The closest I got to a lesbian was Zoe on Emmerdale and she never told me I wasn’t alone. If the only newspapers that come into the family household are those rags like the Indo and the Sunday World and this is the only exposure you get to lesbians/gay people so be it. I think the more it’s mentioned, the more people will get used to it. Not to drag poor Lindsey Lohan into the argument again, but look at how her coverage started out? Salacious, very much so but it was coverage and now we have her in Ok talking about her gal pal.

So someone talking about even being a ‘part-time’ lesbian is a start and we need to start somewhere.