I don't know, it seems to me that American television is just as okay with teasing gay with guy friends as British television is. In some cases (such as House and Scrubs) they're even more ostentatious about it.

What's so representative about potential queerness, anyway? If anything, the way Sherlock and John's relationship is portrayed in the BBC series strikes me as more homophobic. It's that whole "teasing gay" thing that bothers me, because it's a) meant to be funny, which is insulting the audience's intelligence and b) meant to be fanservice, which makes me embarrassed to be a fan, knowing that this kind of pandering is exactly what the writers/producers/etc think of their viewers.