The report also tracks racial, gender, and disability on TV as well, especially with regards to how it intersects with LGBT representation.
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GLAAD counted only three recurring transgender characters on cable television, which equates to 2 per cent representation, and one of those, “Penny Dreadful’s” Angelique, has since met her demise. “It is not enough to just include LGBT characters; those characters need to be portrayed with thought & care to accurately represent an often tokenized community”. On streaming series, 73 percent of LGBT characters were white, while on cable, 71 percent were.
The study found that while there is increasing LGBT representation on broadcast, cable and streaming television, the characters are overwhelmingly white. The ratio of LGBT men and women on TV is fairly close to parity (although gay men still dominate compared to bisexual men, and lesbian and bisexual women), although on streaming shows LGBT women actually outnumber men, 56% to 44%.
The “Where We Are on TV” report’s forecasts for the 2015-16 TV season are based on scripted series which air or are expected to air in primetime between June 1, 2015 and May 31, 2016. “Each of us lives at the intersection of many identities and it’s important that television characters reflect the full diversity of the LGBT community”, she said.
The report specifically praises Fox’s hip-hop mega-hit starring Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson as “one of the most inclusive programs on broadcast television”, noting the drama’s gay musician character, Jamal Lyon (Jussie Smollett), and bisexual singer, Tiana Brown (Serayah McNeill). That number is down from a few years ago, but is roughly in line with the self-identified LGBT population (which admittedly is probably lower than the actual LGBT population).
Only seven transgender characters appear on series from OTT services such as Netflix and Hulu, according to GLAAD. There are 135 series regulars of color on broadcast, 59 of whom are black women, followed by 33 Latinas, 27 Asian Pacific-Islander women and 16 women who belong to another ethnicity or are multiracial (12%).
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Bisexual representations shot up on both broadcast and cable this year, where the latter saw an increase from 10 to 18 bisexual men in its programming. Additionally, the Studio Responsibility Index will be released in early 2016. GLAAD uses the data from these reports to create a clearer picture of the stories and portrayals of LGBT people being presented by the media and encourage networks and studios alike to include more diverse LGBT representations that accelerate acceptance.
