Characters and Casual Sexuality

Lee Goldberg blogs on the curveball thrown in Elisabeth Rohm's final episode of Law & Order, wherein her character is revealed to be a lesbian:

...The D.A., played by Fred Dalton Thompson, calls her character into his office and, because she often lets emotion cloud her judgement, fires her. If they left it at that Donald Trump-esque moment, that would have been fine. Instead, they had to go one more beat...

"Is it because I'm a lesbian?" she asked.

The D.A says no, it's not because you're a lesbian. She sighs, relieved, and says I'm glad, and that was the end of the episode.

The throwaway line was a complete, and uproarious, nonsequitor. Her character's sexuality, straight or gay, has never come up in all the years she's been on the show. Nor have they discussed the sexuality of any other regular. So what was the point of the line? It certainly didn't come off as drama, that's for sure. It came off as an unintentional joke.

I commented:

I'm a Rohm fan from her portrayal of Det. Kate Lockley on ANGEL, but I agree her L&O character had less personality than any of her predecessors. This might have been countered if her sexuality had been hinted at earlier in her run.

I hate to see a character's orientation dealt in a throwaway manner. It reminds me of Robert B. Parker's screenplay for A&E's THIN AIR wherein he turns a minor character into a lesbian who wasn't one in the book.