Lights, Camera, Inclusion: Examining LGBTQ+ Representation in Film and TV

It is a tale as old as time: Boy meets girl; boy and girl fall in love; boy and girl get married and live happily ever after. This is the kind of love story in romantic comedies and Disney movies that many people have grown up watching and normalizing. These movies exemplify heteronormativity, or the notion that heterosexuality is the standard sexual orientation and that any other orientation is a deviation from the norm. Without exposure to queer stories in the media, those in the LGBTQ+ community lack representation and the support to explore their own identities, while cisgender and heterosexual individuals lack understanding of queer experiences.

Lack of Representation

Disney is one of the most prominent media corporations in the world— and one of the largest perpetrators of heteronormativity. Disney and other large media companies are often more concerned with making a profit and attracting overseas audiences—particularly in Russia and China, both of which currently outlaw same-sex marriage—than honoring their responsibility to shape public opinion and illuminate underrepresented experiences.

Thus, Disney has often been criticized for its tokenism because its attempts at representing the LGBTQ+ community are superficial at best. In the 2017 live-action film “Beauty and the Beast,” Gaston’s sidekick LeFou is shown dancing with another man for three seconds; in the 2019 film “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” two female background characters share a peripheral kiss for two seconds. Disney finally featured its first openly gay main character in the 2022 film “Strange World,” which ultimately disappointed at the box office due to a lack of promotion.

An absence of queer representation does not only impact people at the movie theater. The Trevor Project estimates that at least one LGBTQ+ youth attempts to die by suicide every 45 seconds. Overall, LGBTQ+ youth are over four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers. Queer individuals are not naturally prone to suicide risk because of their gender or sexual orientation; rather, this risk stems from the way queer people are often marginalized and discriminated against in society. Understanding is one of the most effective ways to combat prejudice, which makes it all the more essential that large media corporations choose to foster this understanding and potentially save lives over prioritizing their earnings.

Still, LGBTQ+ characters stake a notable share in media today. According to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, a nongovernmental organization that monitors LGBTQ+ representation in the media, 10.6% of regular characters set to appear on scripted primetime broadcast series for the 2022–23 season are LGBTQ+, compared with 7.1% of U.S. adults who self-identify as LGBTQ+.

Incomplete Representation

While queer representation is growing overall, not all members of the LGBTQ+ community are represented equally. For example, according to GLAAD, bisexual+ individuals—those with the capacity to be attracted to more than one gender—make up 55% of the LGBTQ+ community but only 31% of LGBTQ+ characters onscreen. Furthermore, according to a study by the University of California, Los Angeles, asexual people make up 1.7% of LGBTQ+ individuals, yet not a single asexual character appears on a primetime cable show this year.

Additionally, the media rarely addresses intersectionality, or the overlap of an individual’s race, class, gender, and other aspects of their identity to shape their unique experiences with discrimination. Most mainstream films featuring LGBTQ+ main characters center the stories of those who are white, male, or both, such as the 2018 film “Love, Simon.” The LGBTQ+ community is a multiethnic and multiracial community, which must be reflected in media featuring queer characters.

Silencing queer stories does not eliminate real-life queer experiences. Without empathetic reflections of these experiences onscreen, many LGBTQ+ individuals may find themselves without a support system—both in media and in real life—while navigating an already challenging examination of their identities. The media must take steps to incorporate more queer characters—including those of different racial or ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities, and those who identify with oft-overlooked gender or sexual orientations—not simply as prop pieces but as complex, dynamic people with real, human problems. Only then can society promote the understanding necessary to uplift, celebrate, and take pride in LGBTQ+ voices.

—Written by Carly Liao, an Editor-in-Chief.