Posted on by Randy Slovacek

GLAAD: LGBTQ Representation Increases In Films, But Still Room For Improvement

GLAAD: LGBTQ Representation Increases In Films, But Still Room For Improvement
(graphic via GLAAD)

GLAAD’s 2023 Studio Responsibility Index finds increased LGBTQ representation in films, but there’s still room for improvement.

This year, GLAAD is counting 10 studio distributors in its report, including key streaming services as well as rolling up the arthouse labels of major studios to their parent company.

The 10 distributors tracked in this report are: A24, Amazon Studios, AppleTV+, Lionsgate, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount Global, Sony Pictures Entertainment, The Walt Disney Company, and Warner Bros. Discovery.

GLAAD offers this summary of its findings:

• The 10 distributors combined released 350 films in 2022. Of those 350 films, 100 (28.5 percent) contain an LGBTQ character. This is the highest number and percentage recorded in the 11 years GLAAD has conducted this study.

• GLAAD counted 292 LGBTQ characters across the 100 LGBTQ-inclusive films. Of those characters, 117 (40 percent) are characters of color. This is a slight increase from last year’s percentage.

• Of the 292 LGBTQ characters counted, 163 of them were men, 119 were women, and 10 were nonbinary. Seven of the women characters and six of the male characters were transgender.

• This is an increase in the percentage of women, though parity has still not been reached. This marks a record-high number of nonbinary characters found in a single year.

• Twelve of the 350 films GLAAD counted included transgender characters, a record high for this report.

• Over half of LGBTQ characters (56 percent, 165 of 292) clocked under five minutes of screen time. Of the 292 LGBTQ characters, 86 (29 percent of total LGBTQ characters) had less than one minute of screen time. While 95 characters (33 percent) clocked over ten minutes, 32 (11 percent) were between five and ten minutes, and 79 (27 percent) clocked between one and five minutes.

• Eleven LGBTQ characters (four percent) were counted with a disability. This is a record high for this report, but still vastly underrepresents the actual population of queer people with disabilities. Only one of those characters was living with HIV.

Related: GLAAD Reports On LGBTQ Inclusivity In 2019 Films

Read the full report here.