Between the transgender military ban and male prostitues gay sex videosan HHS memo seeking to define "transgender out of existence," it's been a painful, difficult year for the LGBTQ community.
There are nonetheless brighter signs -- and in a medium everyone loves to hate -- television.
A new GLAAD report analyzing LGBTQ representation in television finds a "record high percentage of LGBTQ characters on broadcast TV" in 2018. Before Trump was elected, this is what we used to call "good news."
SEE ALSO: How LGBTQ people are breaking down barriers to take on the great outdoorsGLAAD measures LGBTQ representation across broadcast, streaming, and cable television. According to the report, a record high 8.8 percent of all regularly occurring characters on broadcast television in 2018 are LGBTQ series regulars. In 2017, that number stood at 6.4 percent, then a record high.
Over the next two years, GLAAD is calling on the industry to have LGBTQ characters represent "10 percent of series regular characters on primetime scripted broadcast series." Based on the past two years of change, it's a genuinely realizable goal.
Via GiphyThere are other notable signs of advancement. GLAAD reports that, in 2018, there are more LGBTQ characters of color than white LGBTQ characters in broadcast television. This is the first time this has happened in GLAAD's entire history of producing the report.
"I've been at GLAAD for almost seven years now and have done a number of reports on film and TV .. Even this year I was a little bit shocked sometimes," Megan Townsend, Director of Entertainment Research & Analysis. "There's a lot of good news this year."
GLAAD estimates that the new broadcast season will include 22 percent Black, 8.8 percent LGBTQ, 8 percent Latinx, and 8 percent Asian-Pacific Islander characters.
I can't remember the last time I wrote a story with this much good news. Here's some other key uplifting findings:
Among streaming services, Netflix has the highest number of LGBTQ characters at 88 characters. This number is nearly double what it was in 2017. FX has the highest number of LGBTQ characters on cable.
The number of bisexual+ (bisexual, pan, etc) characters has increased to 117 across platforms. Representation of bi men has increased from 2017.
50 percent of network LGBTQ characters are now people of color.
Shows featuring LGBTQ characters performed well critically and with audiences. Will and Grace counted 15 million people in its first week of release.
FX's Posepremiered this June with the highest number of series regular trans characters in history.
The number of lesbian characters on cable increased from 47 to 53.
Shows featuring LGBTQ characters, particularly queer women, disproportionately feature tragic storylines. (Lesbian women are more likely to die in television shows than their straight characters, a phenomenon known as "Bury Your Gays.") 2018 saw an increase in positive LGBTQ representation. Many of these characters have positive outcomes: Brooklyn Nine-Nine, for example, andCharmed.
Supergirl on the CWbecame TV's first ever trans superhero.
The report isn't all sunny (this wouldn't be a 2018 story if it wasn't), and progress was uneven. Just 2.1 percent of 2018's series regulars are people with disabilities. That's an increase from 2017, where just 1.8 percent of characters were. It's also dismally unrepresentative of the disabled community as a whole. Over 12 percent of Americans are estimated to have some kind of disability.
There are other glaring gaps. Gay men make up 42 percent of LGBTQ characters represented, while lesbian characters make up just 25 percent and bisexual characters, 29 percent. Bisexual people make up the majority of the LGBTQ community.
Via GiphyWomen compose just 43 percent of all series regulars in 2018, even though America is 51 percent female. Come on, TV! Women do not want to wear pink pussyhats to protest cable inequality in 2019.
Still, the GLAAD report is a notable sign of progress in a year that's seen depressingly little. Townsend sees industry diversification as a contributing positive factor, among others.
"This change has a lot to do with new people coming into the industry," Townsend told Mashable. "There are more people creating content who have this drive. The conversation has also changed. There are a lot more people aware of issues with representation now. They know that what's on our screen matters ... it's critical for accelerating acceptance of LGBTQ people in this country."
Thank you for this minuscule nugget of optimism, 2018.
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