Pandemic eating into LGBTQ TV gains

NEW YORK — LGBTQ and gender inclusiveness on television has retreated slightly this season due to delays and shutdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study from the advocacy group GLAAD.

The percentage of regularly seen LGBTQ characters on streaming as well as prime-time broadcast TV and cable during the 2020-21 season fell. Primetime broadcast fell to 9.1 percent after reaching an all-time high of 10.2 percent last season. That represents the first decrease since GLAAD’s 2013-14 report.

“We’re hoping that is just a blip and not the beginning of a trend,” GLAAD’s President &

CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in an interview, adding that the decrease overall was largely due to fewer shows being made.

GLAAD’s report, “Where We Are on TV,” found that 70 out of 773 series regular characters on broadcast scripted prime-time TV were LGBTQ. Last year, those numbers were 90 out of a total of 879 characters. Recurring LGBT characters were also down.

There were also declines in LGBTQ representation on streaming services and primetime scripted cable shows, triggered in part by production shutdowns of such series as

“The L Word,” “Euphoria“and “Killing Eve.”

GLAAD is asking the industry to reach 20 percent representation of LGBTQ regularly seen characters on all three platforms by 2025, and to ensure that half of LGBTQ characters on every TV platform are people of color within the next two years.

The group found good news on the second request in the latest study — over half of LGBTQ characters on cable television were people of color, meeting GLAAD’s challenge.