Last night Gossip Girl, one of my big guilty pleasure shows (but mostly for the hilarious Daily Intel roundups the next day), featured a kiss between two male characters: Chuck Bass (played by Ed Westwick) and Josh Ellis (played by Neal Bledsoe).

First some context: Chuck Bass, one of the male characters in the kiss, is often depicted as a deceptive businessman who dresses meticulously and womanizes endlessly. The recent story arc, however, is that Bass has gone monogamous with his girlfriend, Blair Waldorf. It was the trickery of Waldorf that led to the dude-on-dude kiss: she made a deal with an NYU administrator that she would trade a kiss with her boyfriend for a speech at the freshman dinner. Bass was supposed to seduce the administrator up to the moment before the kiss as part of a game he and Waldorf play occasionally with other women. This time, Waldorf “accidentally” came late to interrupt the kiss.

The ridiculousness of the plot of the episode aside, the aftermath of the kiss was pretty progressive. Bass didn’t go into homophobic freak-out mode. In fact, he smirked and said Waldorf, “You really don’t think I’ve never kissed a guy before?”

Gossip Girl tends to be pretty open about teenage sexuality. Even in the previous seasons, that depicted characters still in high school, they were frank about the fact that these teenagers are having sex (although the show misses an opportunity to work in discussions about birth control and condoms).

One character, a younger brother of Blake Lively’s character Serena van der Woodsen, told his mother he was gay during his freshman year and brings around a boyfriend occasionally.

But the show still deals with the portrayal of gay characters in a limited way. Once the younger brother, Eric, came out, he suddenly became a less crucial character. And the kiss depicted on the show last night, unless they writers plan to do more with Bass’ not-so-straight sexuality, was little more than a diversion. And the message at the end – a gay kiss tore Waldorf and Bass’ relationship apart (well, ultimately it was about the fact that Waldorf was using him, but still) – is a pretty conservative one. The show also has only dealt with male gay sexuality so far. There aren’t any obvious lesbian characters on the show.

Ultimately I’m glad that Gossip Girl is pushing for its characters to be sexual – and falling outside the traditions of what sexual teenagers can be. But sometimes I wish the show pushed the envelope a little bit more.