I remember playing The Sims years ago and being amazed that you could make your sim romantically involved with any other sim, male or female. Of course I had 2 gay men living together in a ridiculously large manor-styled home. It felt great.
That's the only time I can remember there being any fully gay characters who weren't ashamed about it. It felt right and liberating. That's why I'm annoyed at somme's comment about not needing to have a gay character in a game for representation. The way I read it, it felt like you were talking for the entire gay community. Not everyone is / was as lucky as you were. A lot of us need some sort of way, however direct or indirect, to tell us that what we feel is normal. If I had a gay character in a video game when I was younger -- that would have helped me so much.
I'm not surprised by the lack of homosexual characters in gaming (gay men to be specific). The gaming world was for so long completely hetero-crazed & isolated. It's the whole "lesbian's are hot" but gay men are "freaks & unnatural". I think since the Wii video games have become very universal and this'll influence the in-game characters. I hope that soon we will have female's who aren't sexualised, openly gay men & women characters etc. etc.
This whole debate of "I want to relate to a character" ... "video games are a form of escapism for me" is absolute shit. This issue is much greater than you. And if you can't relate yourself to a gay character ... shut up. I really just can't.