BINTURONG'S PROFILE

I think the main problem with gay/non-white characters, as Chivi-chivik alluded to, is that being gay IS their character. An interesting character is never defined by a single trait. Being gay or whatever should be an ASPECT of a character. It's as much a crime to writing to have a tough, basketball-playing black dude (just to pick out a stereotype...) as it is to have a rogue character just be a backstabbing cat-burglar.
It's boring and two dimensional. If you write a character as a three dimensional person, then there's no reason why anyone should hate a gay/non-white character, just because of that one aspect of their person.