In the years since Ellen, television shows such as Will and Grace, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and The L Word, movies such as Brokeback Mountain and Angels in America (which was also an influential play), and musical artists such as Melissa Etheridge, Rufus Wainwright, and The Indigo Girls have emerged, appealing to a wide audience of both homosexuals and heterosexuals. Ever since Ellen DeGeneres made television history by coming out of the closet on her popular primetime sitcom Ellen in 1998, gay and lesbian characters have become increasingly prominent in the media (see Gross, 1994, and Hart, 2000, for discussions).