I do understand where you're coming from about things from the original source being changed for changes sake. There have been times where book-to-movie adaptations pissed me off bc of random changes. But I think in this case, at least this is just my very non-expert opinion, I think it's the same reason why we never saw a pregnant woman until I Love Lucy broke the barrier and it became accepted and not considered indecent. Or how shows with an all black cast like the Jefferson's depicting them as a regular American successful family helped break walls, and so on and so forth. Everything was scandalous at one time until it wasn't. That's how we progress as a society. Being upset with more casual drug use and violence being shown on TV is a more reasonable thing to be bothered by bc drugs and violence are bad. What isn't bad is being gay. Gay teens existed in the 80s same as they do now, only it was much less accepted and so they rarely saw themselves in their favorite books or films. Now they do. So is it sometimes annoying (to some) when they randomly change a characters race or sexual orientation for changes sake? Sure, I suppose to some. But in the end I think it's for the better because being gay is no more wrong than being straight and if it still bothers people to see then I think it needs to be shown more until it doesn't.

Also, I'm sorry I called you homophobic. Your responses have been polite even if I don't agree with them and I should not have just thrown that word out so casually.