My wife and I had a fairly heated debate about that episode after it was aired.
We both love the series and both are frustrated that it doesn't always go as
far we would like, which is only a problem because it goes awfully much further
towards a progressive stance than any other program I know. It is clear to me
as a regular viewer that it often does not endorse the major character's
positions and that it often ends on a point of ambiguity. My sense was that
the point of the episode was to get liberals to think through how they would
react if a loved one actually turned out to be lesbian. I felt it was a strong
indictment of homophobia and sexual repression and the hypocracy which many
of us have on these issues. I felt it made rather a point of how autocratic
and bigotted the parents were being. I also read the daughter's backing away
at the end as somewhat false, a self-deception, which did little to resolve
the question of what she was actually feeling. My bet/hope is that they will
take up that issue again in a future episode. It was also interesting that the
episode paired the issue of homophobia and gender discrimination in the way
that it did, because I felt the series came down pretty hard against
discrimination on the basis of gender. The judge's speech was blistering and
Maxine's responses at the end, while short of what I would like to see,
pointed out the bigotry and paternalism behind the sherrif's actions. So,
my sense is that it is too easy to read the show as having settled on a
conservative attitude. I have learned not to trust the ends of the episodes
and not to assume that the program necessarily endorses the statements made
by its central figures. These are traits that I admire on PICKET FENCES; it
respects our intelligence as viewers to reflect upon what we have seen. It
also is probably why the series is less popular than LA LAW which normally
tells us where it stands more explicitly. My wife would argue with me, however,
that this open-endness is dangerious in dealing with these particular issues
because it would be easy, as you did, to read the episode as endorsing a
rather sexist and homophobic conclusion.
 
--Henry Jenkins