It isn't really a CSI New York thing, more of an american network tv thing. A good portion of Americans freak out over crap like this, just look at all the Harry Potter stuff. The US in general is behind the times socially compared to Canada and Europe, so its no surprise to see American tv behind. Also, its more common for American tv characters to all be likable and have good qualities. Even Dexter only kills bad people. The US is by far more of a religious country, and is really ruled by religion, so homosexuality is viewed as 'evil' or 'sinning'. So i wouldn't say its just CSI NY, but american culture as a whole.
I think this is something the CSI franchise is behind the times on, but it's also American television in general, as others have said. Like xfcanadian said, so much of our country's ideals are founded on religious ones, and that influences television today. It's why violence is more accepted on television and movies than sex, whereas in Europe it's the other way around.
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this is pretty much my take on it too, and it's true that violence is less acceptable than sex over here in europe - we like to make love not war, apparently
the way i see it, america is deeply puritanical. obviously the roots are in religion but it's more about the nature of the religion. someone said the ROI, as a catholic nation, was less "backward" in these matters than the us, but the us is, on the whole, very very protestant, and protestant christianity tends to be far more puritanical than catholic - although obviously catholicism has its moments!
the other difference is the politics - nowhere in the world has religious lobbies in government in the same way that america does. and since legislation affects things like the entertainment industry, those factions have to be kept happy. sadly, the LGBT community is still in the minority and until legislation makes it more mainstream by legalising gay marriage in more states and similar measures, tv will reflect that it's a minority community.
as for the victim thing, that really bothers me - it's really sad when gay people are only shown as either victim or suspicious (or both). what is really needed are some good, strong gay characters who also happen to be just as principled, dedicated, whatever else as the straight characters, so they can be judged on their merits as characters, not as orientation. also less of the stereotypes, how many shows are there where the gay people are overly camp and a bit silly? that's got to be balanced with something!
over here we get a few decent gay characters on tv, even in soaps - although i remember the first gay kisses on prime time soaps (beth jordache in brookside was the first, in 1993, and the first male one was on coronation street, but not until 2003! maybe people found lesbianism more palatable?) caused major hoohah - we don't have that many gay characters, and they're often subjected to victimisation (gay bashing etc) but at least they're there, they're visible, prominent, and generally well accepted. it really does need to happen in the states, i happen to think tv is a great medium for getting people to accept things like this - it can show how things really are, that gay people aren't freaks and are just ordinary people like the straight people.
as for csi, i'd love to see an openly gay main character, i think it would be an interesting dynamic, i think it'd open up possibilities for storylines, and i think it'd be a big step forward on the equality issue. sadly i also think it's unlikely.
