GLAAD today released its annual survey on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) content in films, looking at 102 releases from big Hollywood studios in 2013. It has expressed disappointment in the results, which show little improvement from the previous year, and says that Hollywood badly needs to catch up with the changing nature of popular entertainment as advanced by television.
Whilst LGBT characters are now common on TV, GLAAD found that only 17 of the films it surveyed included any at all, and few of those had substantial roles. Only seven passed the veto test, which requires that an LGBT character have a noticeable role which isn't entirely based around sexuality or gender, and have an active function in advancing the plot. "Many of these appearances were no more than a few seconds long, or just enough time to get to a punchline," the report noted.
As in previous years, gay male characters were the most common, appearing in 65% of inclusive films. 23% featured lesbian characters and 18% bisexual characters, whilst only two included trans characters, both women, one of whom was glimpsed only briefly in a prison and the other of whom was "an outright defamatory depiction included purely to give the audience something to laugh at". Anti-trans slurs used for comic effect remained a problem, with GLAAD singling out Anchorman 2 and Identity Thief for particular criticism, whilst homophobic slurs, though less common than they once were, continued to be used by characters the audience was expected to side with.
Race was also an issue, with 76% of LGBT characters being white, contributing to the invisibility of LGBT people from other ethnic backgrounds.
When it came to genre, comedies were most inclusive, with genre films coming off worst despite the increasing visibility of LGBT characters in independent science fiction and horror films.
The studios surveyed for the report were 20th Century Fox, Lionsgate Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Sony Columbia, Universal Pictures, The Walt Disney Studios, and Warner Brothers. When asked why they were performing so badly on inclusivity, studio executives apparently replied that they were not receiving scripts with LGBT characters, whilst screenwriters said that the studios were not interested in such scripts. GLAAD noted that he current economic environment within the industry may discourage risk, but pointed out that recent risks taken to improve the representation of women in film - as in female-led stories like The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Frozen - have paid off very well.
"It is important that Hollywood also reflect our nation’s full diversity rather than shy away from it," said GLAAD. "Not just for society’s sake, but for the sake of Hollywood’s own relevance and longevity."
