The love that dare not speak its name finally finds a voice in Coronation Street tomorrow when Todd Grimshaw puckers up to Nick Tilsley. The sight of two men kissing in Weatherfield has been a long time coming. In the old days it might have caused Ena Sharples to get her hairnet in a twist or spill her glass of stout. Nowadays such things are expected of a soap.

Perhaps it's no surprise that it's taken the Street so long to discover homosexuality. For years, the ethnic mix of today's society was blatantly ignored in the series. Only comparatively recently has the cast of characters come to reflect our multi-cultural society.

In the old days the sex lives of Weatherfield residents rarely strayed from the straight and narrow. Adultery was fine. Getting pregnant outside marriage was accepted. But a same sex relationship was as alien as a man from Mars.

The only deviation from the norm was the arrival of Hayley, formerly Harold before his/her operation in Amsterdam. This was confusing as Hayley is played by an actress pretending to be a man who is now a woman married to a man played by a man. It would need a High Court ruling to say whether this relationship counted as straight or gay.

After 43 years, Coronation Street is paying lip service to being a realistic portrayal of 21st century life.

Viewers likely to be affronted by the sight of two young men snogging have been warned well in advance. Mind you, the release of pictures of the kiss last week probably had more to do with diverting the spotlight away from the BBC's hype for the return of Dirty Den in EastEnders rather than concern for the sensibilities of delicate viewers who felt faint just hearing Larry Grayson's catchphrase "What a gay day".

The Street press officers have been at pains to point out that the kissing scene is handled as delicately and tastefully as befits the early hour. Don't expect the sort of full frontal, in-your-face gay grapplings seen in Channel 4's barrier-breaking Queer As Folk.

For a start, Nick is an apparently unwilling recipient of the kiss from Todd, who's living with Sarah, the schoolgirl mum and sister of Nick, with whom he's locking lips.

Todd is confused, like the rest of us who assumed he was heterosexual and happy with Sarah. For that reason, some will see this as a cheap attempt to grab ratings in the continuing battle between top soaps Coronation Street and EastEnders.

The truth would appear to be rather different and the result of several years storylining. Writer Daran Little, who describes himself as "the first openly gay writer on the Street since the show's creator, Tony Warren", was given the task of creating the Grimshaw family back in 2000.

He was, he tells Inside Soap magazine, reluctant to create a gay character as he didn't want to appear as if he'd got on a soap box. "I gave Eileen Grimshaw's sons experiences from my own life in that I wanted Jason to get to know his estranged father and Todd to question his sexuality.".

He says he's glad the first gay character in the Street isn't "a screaming queen, sipping cocktails in the Rovers dressed in pink Lycra". Probably, because someone like that would be mistaken for Bet Gilroy.

Gay characters in soaps are rare enough to ensure plenty of comment when they get to grips with each other. C4's Brookside made headlines when Beth Jordache kissed nanny Margaret, and the triangle involving dithering Tony, gay Simon and sister Tiffany in EastEnders was also considered daring.

A pre-watershed kiss between Tony and Simon was filmed but cut from the programme for fear of offending viewers.

Once they've extracted maximum ratings, gay characters are usually discarded by soaps. They come out and then get out.

Only Emmerdale has persevered. Zoe Tate arrived in the farming community as a heterosexual but later converted to lesbianism like some people become vegetarians.

The vet has enjoyed a number of girl-on-girl liaisons, a surprising number considering the small community in which she lives. The percentage of lesbians per head of population must be the highest in the country.

At least she was accepted as any other character rather than being introduced for the sole purpose of highlighting lesbian issues. The signs are that the Street's gay storyline will extend further than a brief kiss-and-tell session.

Daran Little has indicated that Todd's sexual uncertainty will be an on-going plotline and not just a short, sharp shock story.

It won't be easy. Dealing with gay issues before the watershed is still tricky, even in these supposedly enlightened times. ITV's cop drama The Bill attracted many complaints with a kiss between two policemen just before 9pm.

The main objection was that they were in uniform when it happened. Would affronted viewers have preferred them to be nude?