Television offers a interesting and varied representation of queerness — but not necessarily in the “various representations of queer persons” manner. The visual medium relies heavily on hyperbole and stereotypes, so we see a lot the flamboyant gay man, dykey lesbian, or not-quite-successful trans person.
In recent years, we have seen more accurate representations queer persons living normal lives. Well, as normal as they can be in a sitcom, but the same lives as the straight and/or cis characters around them. Thanks to shows like The New Normal, Modern Family, and Happy Endings, we can compare the gay couples, in this case all male, to the heteronormative representations on screen at the same time. 
The New Normal, the show about a gay couple in LA using a surrogate to have a baby, S01E22 “About a Boy Scout” features a storyline in which the characters face the homophobia ingrained in the Boy Scouts of America system, right as that same policy was being reviewed (and was eventually overturned). This parallel of real life and TV drama was a way for some members of middle America to be exposed to some of the difficulties queer people contend with on a daily basis — a child something as apparently all-American as joining the Boy Scouts (yes, I know Lord Baden-Powell was British) being denied suddenly becomes real.
Ellen DeGeneres has mentioned several times she does not consider herself an activist (Ms. Magazine and Lesbian Life to name a very few). But it doesn’t hurt for the central and southren regions of America to get their daily recommended does of gay while they’re laughing at “Bad Paid-For Tattoos,” Facebook photos of her audience members, or any of the numerous big-name stars she invites onto her show.
How could be possibly forget the risen start of Laverne Cox. When she shot to the 
top of people’s lists thanks to Orange if the New Black, and then defended a transwoman’s, and all trans people’s, right to privacy when Katie Couric insisted on asking Cox her opinion on Carmen Carrera’s refusal to answer questions about how much surgery she may or may not have undergone. Lauded as the first trans(itioned) person to be featured on the cover of Time magazine, Cox has opened the discussion up to the world at large. Though a lot of the hype has migrated back to the internet from whence it emerged, there are still more opportunities for the beginnings of conversation — and as the subtitle on this cover suggests, the next step in our civil rights movements.
Queer depictions in TV media have evolved in leaps and bounds, since the medium was first invented. While before we may have been lucky to see something like Zorro: The Gay Blade and laugh at George Hamilton’s flamboyant persona, or Mel Brooks making fegeleh jokes in Robin Hood: Men in Tights, we now also have the likes of Milk from which to draw. We’re not perfect, yet, but I like to think we’re getting closer.