NEWS

John Cho’s Sulu in Star Trek Beyond was one of the few LGBTQ characters in mainstream action/sci-fi film in 2016

After Moonlight picked up the Best Picture Oscar, it might feel like things are getting better for LGBT representaion in film. However, Moonlight was released by a very small distributor, and the just issued Studio Responsibility Index from GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) reports no progress for lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender characters in movies released by the bigger studios in 2016.

Of the 125 films released by the seven biggest players in 2016 (20th Century Fox, Lionsgate Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, and Warner Brothers), just 18.4% featured characters who identified as LGBTQ, only marginally ahead of the 17.5% reported in the previous index. Of those characters, only 20% were people of color, and 43% were on-screen for less than a minute. Perhaps worst of all, there was only one transgender/non-binary character in any of the movies, and that character was purely used as the butt of a joke (Benedict Cumberbatch’s non-binary All) in Zoolander 2.

Out of the 22 movies with LGBTQ characters, only nine (one more than last year) passed GLAAD’s Vito Russo Test, which looks for representation that goes beyond the token or negative. In order to qualify a film must, ‘contain a character that is identifiably lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender… That character must not be solely or predominantly defined by their sexual orientation or gender identity… The LGBTQ character must be tied into the plot in such a way that their removal would have a significant effect, meaning they are not there to simply provide colorful commentary, paint urban authenticity, or (perhaps most commonly) set up a punchline. The character must matter.’

Likewise there were still plenty of homophobic jokes in 2016’s Hollywood movies, with GLAAD singling out Dirty Grandpa and Central Intelligence as being particularly egregious, and noting that plenty of movies with no LGBTQ characters at all were still filled with jokes directed at LGBTQ people and communities, or rooted in gay panic. That said, comedy still remains the most-inclusive genre in terms of sheer representation, with over 30% of comedy movie featuring LGBTQ characters.

It is also worth noting that to get to its tally, GLAAD was generous to include some incredibly marginal representation, such as two wildebeest in Zootopia, who are presumed to be gay because in the credits they share the same surname, rather than because of anything they did in the actual movie (GLAAD included them as the director has confirmed they were supposed to be a couple).

They do however note a major increase in the number of LGBTQ characters, up from 47 to 70, but that is largely because of a single scene in PopStar: Never Stop Never Stopping, which features 14 LGBT characters. So in truth, there’s not much progress there either.

While you might expect the arthouse divisions of the studios to be doing better, they’re actually worse. GLAAD found that of the 41 movie released by Focus Features, Fox Searchlight, Roadside Attractions, and Sony Pictures Classics, just 17% were LGBT-inclusive (down from 22% last year).

As a result of all this GLAAD didn’t give any of these studios a Good or Excellent grade. Instead ‘three studios received “Poor” ratings for their 2016 slates [20th Century Fox, Paramount, Warner Brothers] and three others received “Failing” ratings [Lionsgate, Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Studios]. Universal Pictures is the only studio to be rated “Insufficient.”’ Even that’s a step up for Disney, as the vaguely gay wildebeest in Zooptopia mean they did better than 2015, when not one of their movies included an indentifiably LGBTQ character.

The report also includes a postscript noting the variety of much smaller distributors such as A24, Strand Releasing, Wolfe Releasing, IFC, and Magnolia Pictures, who are ensuring that at least some LGBTQ inclusive and LGBTQ-focused films get to US audiences. However, it is undoubtedly true that in the world of mainstream entertainment, TV is far ahead of film when it comes to LGBTQ representation, with studios still shying away from including queer characters at all, let alone interesting, multi-dimesional ones.

You can read the full Studio Responsibility Index by clicking here.