Patty's sexuality was already alluded to numerous times in the past, but when the writers finally dropped all pretences over the issue and outed her on the show, it allowed for some great character development for Patty and the rest of her family. Furthermore, it created a small but noticeable shift in the Bouvier-Simpsons family dynamic. Bart and Lisa were all for gay marriage and Patty's sexuality, Marge was initially shocked but eventually accepted (begrudgingly) the fact that Patty is gay, whereas Homer, of all people, had no qualms whatsoever and his hate-hate relationship with Patty actually thawed a bit (albeit temporarily). Despite the controversy that came out of this episode, this permanent development of Patty's character allowed the show to tackle the issue of sexuality and same-sex marriage in an open-minded way that was palatable to all viewers. In the end, Patty coming out of the closet is great and all, but closeted Patty still gave us some hilarious one-liners from various characters such as Patty's own quip of "There goes the last lingering thread of my heterosexuality"when she saw a naked and screaming Homer running by, and Homer's own response of "Patty's Gay? Here's another bomb for ya, Marge: I like beer!"when Marge was shocked at Patty's revelation.
My life story is nothing special. I haven't cured ebola, I'm nowhere near stopping terrorism, and I'm still working on that climate change problem.
Instead, all I've done so far is put a few hundred words together in an attempt to make people laugh.
You can follow me at @Fry_ying_pan but don't be offended if I don't tweet back. It's usually because I've spent too long trying to think up a witty response that the reply window has closed.
