"Designing Women" was progressive for its time, breaking ground in an era in which there weren't many LGBTQIA+ characters on television. In Season 4, Delta Burke's character, Suzanne, learns that an old friend of hers is a lesbian and, while she is initially upset by this, she learns to be more accepting over the course of the episode after her friends take her to task. "This episode unpacks what happens when conservatives discover that they have gay friends and shows them the choice conservatives must make between being a decent person to those friends, or retaining their culturally ingrained homophobia," Matt Baume, host of the "Culture Cruise" web series, told HuffPost. The show also talked about AIDS in a time when mainstream conversation about the condition was still somewhat taboo.
Burke herself is less hesitant than her "Designing Women" character when it comes to her support of the LGBTQIA+ community. In fact, she's a staunch ally, and was awarded the Equality Award from the Human Rights Campaign in 2006. In her acceptance speech, she thanked the LGBTQIA+ community, saying, "My hair, my wardrobe, my makeup — always much, much better because of the gays. OK, let's just call it: If it weren't for homosexuals, I wouldn't look this good and my career would basically be nonexistent" (via Advocate).
Burke also affirmed her support for same sex marriage in her speech, saying, "I believe in gay marriage. I believe in equal rights."
