It was an improvement from Simpson and Delilah in October 1990, which featured a stylish assistant, Karl, who helped Homer, whose sexuality is never mentioned even though the person voicing him ( Harvey Fierstein) is a gay playwright, In the episode, Karl and Homer kiss in what some say is the first animated male-male kiss to air on network television, prior to the gay kiss in the May 2000 Dawson's Creek episode, ' True Love'.

Creator Matt Groening, when asked in a 1991 interview if Karl was gay, said 'he's whatever you want him to be' and added that including Karl was 'beyond any other cartoon,' even though some gay viewers were disappointed that the character didn't identify himself as gay. Some argued that 'Homer's Phobia' did more, in terms of awareness and exposing intolerance, than 'any live action show at the time.' The Simpsons also had a stereotypical on-and-off-again gay couple, Grady and Julio.