https://www.imdb.com/news/ni64995906/?ref_=nwc_art_plk#:~:text=However%2C%20things%20took%20a%20turn,character%2C'%E2%80%9D%20Bass%20said.

However, things took a turn when he came out. “I had a sitcom with The CW at the time, and we were about to shoot the pilot and this came out and they were like, 'We can't do the show anymore. Like, they have to believe that you're straight to play a straight character,'” Bass said.

Its sort of true. Times have changes though. Its crazy to think but an A List actor played a gay character in the movie Making Love in 1982. He was not gay but just playing a gay character ruined his career and he was not hired again for a major film.

Neil Patrick Harris was a pioneer of being an out gay man playing a straight character on TV.
Straight people can really be stereotyped by playing a gay character. The one actor who played a gay man on Sex and the City made everyone really think he was gay. He was on so many sitcoms and movies but the gay character hurt future chances. Not that it mattered because Sex and the City was a long running series.