Friday, October 11, 2013

LGBT People of Color is still an Issue in Television


In GLAAD's 18th Annual Where We Are on TV report, we learn that diversity within our community is still on the low side.

Here are the results:

  • Out of 796 primetime broadcast scripted series regulars, 26 will be LGBT this year, or 3.3%. This in down from 4.4% last year but still up from 2.9% at the beginning of the 2011-2012 season. In addition, GLAAD found 20 recurring LGBT characters, down from 25 last year.


  • ABC and FOX are the only networks to show increases this year and have the highest percentage of LGBT characters at 5.4% each. The CW is in third place at 3%. CBS is no longer last with 1.9% of its regular characters being LGBT, while NBC dropped from last year to 1%.
  • Of the 46 LGBT regular and recurring characters on broadcast networks, half are women and 28% are people of color. While last year there weren't any regular transgender characters on broadcast television, there will be one this season with the character of Unique on Glee.


  • On cable, GLAAD counted 42 regular LGBT characters, up from 35 last season. An additional 24 recurring characters were counted. HBO will have the most characters with a total of 11, followed by Showtime with 8 characters. Of those LGBT characters, 39% are women and 29% are people of color. Only one transgender character, Adam on Degrassi, was counted though he no longer appears on the program.


  • Of the 796 overall regular characters on broadcast primetime, the percentage of female characters has declined somewhat to 43%. People of color will once again make up 23% of all regular characters, while just 1% will be depicted as people with disabilities.
More work to be done.

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Viktor is a small town southern boy living in Los Angeles. You can find him on Twitter, writing about pop culture, politics, and comics. He’s the creator of the graphic novel StrangeLore and currently getting back into screenwriting.