Why are so many tv characters gay
36% of LGBTQ TV Characters Won’t Be Returning Next Season, Says GLAAD
GLAAD‘s annual “Where We Are on TV” report — which tracks the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual+, trans and queer characters — is out, and a key finding is that 36% of TV’s LGBTQ characters will not be returning next season, for several reasons including series being cancelled.
What’s more, LGBTQ-inclusive shows such as The Rookie: Feds, once cancelled, are not being replaced with similarly inclusive programs. As one result, LGBTQ inclusion on broadcast-TV series declined to a six-year low.
The GLAAD report acknowledges that a “fraction” of the decrease in LGBTQ characters on TV can be attributed to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes that shut down Hollywood last summer and led to returns and premieres being delayed. But also, new inclusive programming was not ordered to substitute cancelled series such as Feds, Legends of Tomorrow and Gotham Knights. “In fact,” the study says on Page 11, “there is not a free series currently on publish TV that has an LGBTQ character as the sole protagonist.”
Why does inclusion matter?
Beaming With Pride: How TV Became the Unsung Hero For LGBTQ+ Representation
The twist of the 21st century was a pivotal moment for LGBTQ+ representation. Before streaming services and social media, television was the medium that mattered. Mainstream movies largely avoided queer themes, which could price studios at the box office. And those that did tread in homosexual waters weren’t widely seen, such as Too Wong Foo, Julie Newmar, Jeffrey, and Thanks for Everything! In the music planet, pop stars like Lad George, Elton John, and George Michael either danced around their sexuality or avoided pronouns or other telltale specifics in their lyrics.
But television was universal. There were only a handful of channels, watched by millions of people, mostly in real second. The impact of a single scene couldn’t be underestimated.
I remember vividly the first time I saw a gay person on TV. Not a male lover character—or an actor that everyone “knew” was queer in real life. I mean a real-life out-and-proud gay man. It was Norman Korpi on the first season of MTV’s The Real World.
By the time I was 14, I figured out I was gay. But the only mentions of homosexuality on TV were either played for
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GLAAD’s annual “Where We Are on TV” report was released this week, and was a bit bleak. We’re losing characters across scripted broadcast programming, and of all 468 LGBTQ characters counted across publish , cable and streaming networks, 36% won’t be returning due to cancellations, the miniseries/anthology format, or a character dying or otherwise exiting the show. We’ve talked a lot around here about how much these cancellations are f*cking our community, and recently listed more than 52 shows with lesbian and bisexual characters cancelled after one season.
But you wouldn’t know how desperately our community needs more Homosexual characters on television from doing what I execute every month, which is google all kinds of combinations of new exhibit names and networks to figure out if they’re going to be showcasing LGBTQ characters. This is something I have to do to write the monthly streaming guide. And while those searches often turn out useful data, they also deliver, inevitably, a Reddit thread or Quora thread of people complaining about there creature too many LGBTQ characters on television, or worrying that their favorite comic b
Accurate representation of the Queer community in media is no easy task. One major reason for this is simply because there is not just one correct way to represent these identities. Although being Gender non-conforming can be an important aspect of someone’s identity, it isn’t the only factor, and therefore writers struggle to find a way to portray characters in a sensible manner. The issue, however, is that this ambiguity leads writers to collapse victim to a series of harmful tropes when writing their Queer characters. These tropes are subsequently projected onto the LGBTQ+ people in viewers’ authentic lives. In brief, if and how Queer characters are depicted in media matters.
Take representation of diversity within the Queer community, for instance. The Homosexual & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation’s annual Where We Are On TV describe recorded that of the Queer characters on TV, 35% are gay, 30% are lesbian and 25% are bi-curious. Only the remaining 8% were transitioned, Queer, asexual or undetermined. As the number of Gay characters increases, the identities represented wait consistent. Watching two cisgender men plunge in love feels more comfortable to a viewer who lacks understanding or empathy for Gen Z’