In broadcast TV first, lesbians outnumber homosexual male characters

For the primary time, lesbians outnumber homosexual males amongst broadcast tv’s LGBTQ characters, in line with a report launched Thursday from the queer media advocacy group GLAAD.

In its annual “The place We Are on TV” report, GLAAD, which began analyzing LGBTQ illustration on TV in 1996, discovered that queer ladies symbolize 56 of the 141 LGBTQ characters on scripted broadcast applications, or 40 %, within the present 2021-2022 TV season. Homosexual male characters symbolize 49 of the overall queer characters, or practically 35 %, on the 5 main broadcasters — ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and The CW. The NBC broadcast channel and NBC Information are each a part of Comcast-NBCUniversal.

“It’s vital to see fairness even inside our personal marginalized neighborhood,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis informed NBC Information. “So to see ladies be so entrance and middle is an indication for me that there’s progress, that we’re shifting ahead.”

Lesbian illustration was given a lift on broadcast TV with the premiere of reveals comparable to ABC’s “Queens,” CBS’ “NCIS: Hawai’i,” NBC’s “Legislation & Order: Organized Crime” and Fox’s “Pivoting” and “Our Sort of Individuals.”

Javicia Leslie, a bisexual actor who performs the titular lesbian superhero within the CW sequence “Batwoman,” attributed the uptick in lesbian illustration to the onset of the #MeToo motion in 2017.

“With all the pieces that occurred a couple of years in the past, I feel that the trade is beginning to shift and much more of those which are in cost, much more of those that approve the content material that’s popping out are ladies,” Leslie mentioned. “Due to that, we’re going to get extra tales which are informed from the feminine standpoint, together with each side of the feminine standpoint.”

She added, “It’s simply actually cool to be part of not only a development, however a change, you realize, a shift the place extra inclusive tales are being informed.”

This TV season additionally marked the primary time lesbians make up many of the LGBTQ characters on cable TV because the 2006-2007 season, GLAAD discovered, with lesbians making up 48 of cable TV’s 138 LGBTQ characters. GLAAD attributed each peaks in lesbian illustration to Showtime’s “The L Phrase,” which initially premiered in 2004 and was rebooted as “The L Phrase: Era Q” in 2019.

Nonetheless, amongst streaming providers — which the group began amassing information for in 2019 — homosexual males held on to their majority, representing 118 of streaming providers 358 LGBTQ characters in contrast with 98 lesbians.

This season, there are 637 common and recurring LGBTQ characters throughout broadcast, cable and streaming platforms, with 202 lesbian characters (32 %), 212 homosexual males (33 %), 183 bisexuals (29 %), 42 transgender characters (6.6 %) and 17 nonbinary roles (2.7 %). Bisexual characters noticed a slight improve of 1 % from final season, whereas transgender characters noticed a virtually 45 % improve. 

Racial variety amongst LGBTQ characters is up on broadcast and streaming, however down barely on cable tv, GLAAD discovered, and for the fourth 12 months in a row, queer characters of shade outnumber their white counterparts on broadcast tv.

Following final 12 months’s pandemic-induced dip, LGBTQ characters as an entire symbolize 11.9 % of sequence common characters which are scheduled to look on broadcast scripted prime-time tv this TV season — a rise of two.8 % from final 12 months and a brand new record-high proportion.

Nonetheless, Tre’vell Anderson, an LGBTQ activist and the editor of the queer media outlet Xtra, mentioned that quantifying queer illustration in TV by numbers is “not sufficient.”

“If we give attention to the numbers, we don’t get to speak in regards to the precise lived experiences of people who’ve been introduced into these areas to shore up the variety,” Anderson mentioned.

Anderson, who makes use of gender-neutral pronouns, pointed to Amazon Prime Video’s “Harlem,” a present that follows the lives of 4 greatest girlfriends dwelling in Harlem. Of the quartet, solely one among them, Tye, who’s performed by Jerrie Johnson, is a lesbian.

“And whereas I loved the present, to be clear, the the concept she wouldn’t have some other queer pals, to me, as a Black queer particular person, is odd,” Anderson mentioned. 

“We’re anticipated to say, ‘Oh, this present has a queer particular person, you realize, a queer character performed by a queer particular person. That may be a win for variety,’ and perhaps it’s,” they added. “However in different situations, if this queer particular person is surrounded in a, you realize, in any other case straight setting, what’s it actually doing once we’re speaking about illustration of our neighborhood?”

GLAAD additionally highlighted that LGBTQ inclusion is pushed by a small handful of tv networks. For instance, Showtime, Freeform and FX symbolize practically half, or 46 %, of all LGBTQ common and recurring characters on prime-time scripted cable applications. GLAAD additionally counted eight trans characters on broadcast TV sequence, with 5 of the eight, or 63 %, showing on The CW alone.

“We’re actually pushing to work with extra networks to verify we’re not in a spot the place if one sequence ends, or if one character leaves or something like that, that we’d see an enormous decline wherever,” Megan Townsend, GLAAD’s director of leisure analysis and evaluation, mentioned.

As queer illustration in TV has grown in recent times, LGBTQ actors and producers have additionally been snagging extra awards for creating and enjoying queer roles.

Final month, Michaela Jaé “Mj” Rodriguez, 31, turned the primary trans particular person to win a Golden Globe, taking dwelling the award for greatest actor in a TV drama for her function as housemother and nurse Blanca on the FX present “Pose.” Rodriguez’s record-breaking win got here after the “Pose” star turned the primary trans performer to be nominated for a lead performing Emmy.

The Producers Guild of America named producer, author, director Greg Berlanti — identified for his hand in hit LGBTQ content material — as this 12 months’s honoree for the celebrated Norman Lear Achievement Award this month.

And final week, Kristen Stewart and Ariana DeBose turned the primary brazenly queer actors to get Oscar nods in twenty years, whereas queer movie “The Energy of the Canine” — a psychological Western centered on a closeted rancher — obtained an eye-popping 12 nominations.

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