Ugh. While I can understand people's frustration with so gross a mishandling of a gay/potentially gay character, it completely disgusts me how many of the Gay(tm) idiot commenters on AfterElton are planning on refusing to watch the show now. Get the fuck over it kittens. Not everything has to be Mary, Mary, Mary all the day long. Grrrrr.

Heroes wasn't an interesting show just because it had a [potentially] gay character and it isn't any less so now that it doesn't. It's smartly written and understands [for the most part] the look/feel elements of comic book/superhero stuff.
And if you need a super-fag element to make you watch it, Mary please don't tell me you think Peter Petrelli's hair is like that on accident. I'm just saying.

So what are ya going to do jackass, force them to watch?

If GLBT viewers choose to tune out because they were gay-baited with a character who was presented as gay and were hit with a gay-bait-and-switch, that's their right. Just as it's your right to weigh in with a wholly unimportant opinion.

The AfterElton article doesn't just single out NBC execs as possibly being behind this, but points out that the people managing the actor who plays Zach may be exerting pressure that the character not be gay. Given the actor has been cast to play young John Connor in the upcoming Terminator TV show pilot, they may be a bit nervous about their "hero" having to overcome the gay "shadow" of his current character. Unfortunately, there are a lot of agents and managers who see playing gay as a way of damaging their client's future revenue generating potential. Regardless of who is behind this, I'm profoundly disappointed. Heroes would have been a perfect show to have a gay sidekick. That said, I won't stop watching the show because of this issue.