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The media advocacy organization GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) has released its annual report that tracks the depictions of under-represented characters on television.
In addition to focusing on LGBTQ roles, the forecast also looked at how broadcast networks, cable channels and streaming services cast people of color, women, and people with disabilities in leading and supporting parts.
The good news: the GLAAD study found that on broadcast TV shows, nearly 5 percent of the characters were LGBTQ, including Jamal Lyon, played by Jussie Smollett, in the Fox series, “Empire.”
GLAAD said that’s the highest percentage for regular characters on broadcast series it has ever found in two decades of studies, and up almost one percentage point from a year ago. The number of regular LGBTQ characters on cable networks was up as well, with the cable channel Freeform, formerly known as ABC Family, leading the way with 27 regular or recurring LGBTQ roles.
For the first time, GLAAD studied streaming sites such as Amazon and Netflix, and found dozens of LGBTQ characters there, thanks to shows like Amazon’s “Transparent” and “One Mississippi.”
But the bad news is what happens to some of those characters. It’s a phenomenon that GLAAD calls “Bury Your Gays.” That's when LGBTQ characters, especially lesbian and bisexual women, are repeatedly killed off, as in this scene when the inmate named Poussey Washington dies in “Orange is the New Black”:
Sarah Kate Ellis, the president of GLAAD, said in the report: “When there are so few lesbian and bisexual women on television, the decision to kill these characters in droves sends a toxic message about the worth of queer female stories.”
And even if, as the GLAAD report found, there are more black characters of any sexual orientation on television, and people with disabilities are turning up in a growing number of series, there is still a lot of work to be done.