I was re-reading Diane Wynne Jones The Tough Guide to Fantasyland shortly after reading a forgettable spy novel from the mid 1960's in which the villain was quite fey and enjoyed threatening the hero with sodomy before death and all that.
Jones asserts that many fantasy parties have a gay wizard (paging Lynn Flewelling), who is always good for a casual footrub and sage advice.
It occurred to me that the whole "gay is villainous" thing swung so far over that the backlash ought to be done by now. And all characters who interact with one another, at least romantically, must have a sexuality of some kind. Even the villains. So, when will it be okay to write gay villains again? Would it ever be okay to write a gay villain? Not even Krod Mandoon suggested otherwise.
I suspect the answer is "never." Heterosexuality is assumed by default. Making a character gay is still A Statement, regardless of who's making it, and not some by-the-by characteristic of the villain. Witness the recent kerfluffle over gay characters in YA literature; several authors accuse YA agents and publishers of trying to nix even a minor gay character.
You can play a gay character for laughs or seriousness, but it's still tricky water to navigate (he said, mixing his metaphors the way one mixes crisco & j-lube). But not villainous. I suspect the gay villain will not be a part of anyone's toolbox, at least not in genre literature, for a while yet.