The major Hollywood studios have received a slap over their collective wrists over the way they present – or, rather, don’t – gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender characters. Not, we hasten to add, that there isn’t anything wrong with that.
The second annual survey of “LGBT images” conducted by GLAAD (the US lobby group formed in 1985 as the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) gave fails to Paramount and Warner Bros, a mark of “adequate” to 20th Century Fox, Lionsgate, Universal and Disney, and its first ever “good” score to Sony.
The GLAAD survey of releases from the majors found that only 17 of the 102 films released by the seven studios included characters identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual; most of these were cameos or minor characters; and many of the characterisations were “outright defamatory”.
“The lack of substantial LGBT characters in mainstream film, in addition to the outdated humour and stereotypes, suggests large Hollywood studios may be doing more harm than good when it comes to worldwide understanding of the LGBT community,” said GLAAD chief Sarah Kate Ellis in a statement issued by the organisation.
“These studios have the eyes and ears of millions of audience members, and should reflect the true fabric of our society rather than feed into the hatred and prejudice against LGBT people too often seen around the globe.”
The GLAAD survey found only 25 LGBT characters across those 102 films, and claimed that the vast majority were white, male and in a comedy. Genre films – defined by GLAAD as action, sci-fi and fantasy – accounted for about 40 per cent of all studio releases but only four of them could find room for an LGBT character.
Unsurprisingly, there were no LGBT characters in any family-oriented films.
Sadly, the survey did not cast judgment on the Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy This Is The End, which was arguably both the gayest and the most homophobic film of 2013.
Though distributed by Sony, the movie was produced independently and thus fell outside the terms of “major studio releases”.
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