WALNUT CREEK, Calif. – Berkeley resident Leesa Tori has no problem recalling, with vivid clarity, that television moment on April 30, 1997, when Ellen DeGeneres spoke into an airport public-address system and announced to all the world, “I’m gay.”

The coming-out scene on the ABC sitcom “Ellen” was a watershed event in television history and left Tori, a lesbian, beaming with pride.

“That was so incredibly important. It was just huge,” Tori says. “She was my hero.”

More than 10 years later, gay viewers — and anyone who values diversity in their pop-cultural fare — can take pride in the fact that gay characters on television are no longer such a big-deal novelty.

According to a recent study by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, broadcast television featured 16 gay and bisexual regular characters in prime-time shows at the start of the fall season. That’s more than double the seven of a year ago.

The depictions run the gamut, from a bisexual woman on “Bones” to a budding same-sex female romance on “Grey’s Anatomy” and a gay marriage on “Brothers & Sisters.”

In addition, 19 recurring characters (those who appear only time to time) on broadcast television are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. Combine the regular and recurring characters and it’s the most GLAAD has counted during its 13 years of monitoring the networks.

Moreover, when consideration is given to reality shows, daytime dramas and gay-oriented cable networks, it becomes clear that never before have gay story lines been so prominent on television.

“Naturally, we want to see ourselves represented and have our stories told,” says GLAAD president Neil G. Giuliano. “But this (broadening representation) is also important because we know that images on TV and in the movies have a lot of power and influence. They can go a long way toward helping others embrace the LGBT community with love and acceptance.”

To that end, Giuliano is pleased to not only see more gay characters on the small screen, but more “fully developed” characters with “substantial depth” to them. In other words, characters who don’t serve simply as gimmicks or window dressing or the butt of jokes as many gay depictions have done in the past.

He points to the ABC family drama “Brothers & Sisters,” in which one of the main characters – Kevin Walker (Matthew Rhys) – has participated in a same-sex wedding ceremony with Scotty Wandell, a character played by openly gay actor Luke Macfarlane. It is believed to be prime time’s first gay wedding involving series regulars.

On the same show, Kevin’s uncle, Saul Holden (Ron Rifkin), last season officially came out in his 60s, after acknowledging he had led a life filled with regret.

“That’s a very genuine situation – someone coming out late in life and dealing with all that entails,” Giuliano says. “It’s a great story to be told.”

ABC, which GLAAD credits as being the top broadcast network when it comes to LGBT inclusion, added a fledgling romance between female doctors – Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) and Erica Hahn (Brooke Smith) – on its No. 1-rated drama, “Grey’s Anatomy.”

“That’s another very wonderful and real story of women learning to understand their same-sex attraction,” says Giuliano. “And what’s also neat about that story is the reaction to the situation by the other doctors and their friends. They’re being educated as well, and in them is where most of the viewers can see themselves.”

Some of the most interesting developments in gay-related television continue to occur in other genres and programming platforms. Reality TV, for example, has long been at the forefront when it comes to compelling LGBT personalities, including this season’s inclusion of Isis, a transgender contestant on “America’s Next Top Model” (The CW), and Lance Bass, a gay contestant on “Dancing with the Stars.”

Meanwhile, on cable, which introduced such shows as “Queer as Folk” and “The L Word,” the Emmy-winning “Mad Men” (AMC) features a closeted gay man – Salvatore Romano (Bryan Batt) – living in denial among his skirt-chasing co-workers.

And in daytime television, “All My Children” (ABC), which broke ground with the coming out of Erica Kane’s daughter Bianca (Eden Riegel), has seen the character return in a new story line, with a new girlfriend.