The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has given ABC Family an "Excellent" rating in its fifth annual Network Responsibility Index, a report on LGBT people on TV.

GLAAD evaluated the primetime programming on the five broadcast networks and 10 cable networks.

According to GLAAD, of ABC Family's 103 hours of original programming, 55 percent included "LGBT-inclusive images which also reflected the ethnic and racial diversity of the LGBT community."

"As television audiences get to know our community and the common ground that we all share on the screen and in their own lives, acceptance is growing," Mike Thompson, acting president of GLAAD, said in a statement. "Inclusive programming is a hit with critics and audiences alike who cheered for Kurt and Blaine's romance on 'Glee' or watched the wedding of Callie and Arizona on 'Grey's Anatomy.'"

The most rewarding parts about writing a book are usually the advance payment beforehand, or the acclaim afterward. But for me, with 'The Q Guide to The Golden Girls,' it was the homework.

In the spring of 2006, I had the excuse to revisit old favorite 'Golden' episodes, all in the name of journalism. And even better, I had the opportunity to interview Bea Arthur, Betty White and Rue McClanahan in their respective homes, where I could not only ask them outright about their careers, but could also observe firsthand a small slice of their own real lives. For a gay man who had grown up on Dorothy Zbornak's quips and Blanche Devereaux's steamy sex stories, this was fantasy camp.

With her sixth husband, Morrow Wilson, not at home when I arrived at her apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side, Rue answered the door in a bathrobe, fresh from the shower. Then, because this interview was going to be captured on video for the Archive of American Television (it's now viewable, in fact, here), I was able to watch as the Oklahoma native, then 72, went into makeup, transforming gradually into a certain beautiful, carefully coiffed Miami slut.