The number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender characters appearing this fall on primetime network television has declined by almost two-thirds compared to the 2001-’02 television season, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation reports. The Fall season includes only seven lesbian and gay characters in primetime…all of whom are white. There are no bisexual or transgender characters. Last year, 20 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender characters regularly appeared on network TV.
This fall, only six network shows feature lesbian and gay characters: returning shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dawson’s Creek, ER, NYPD Blue and Will & Grace; and the new ABC drama MDs. Eleven shows with lesbian and gay characters are not returning, including Spin City, Felicity, Once and Again, The Ellen Show, and Dark Angel. The only shows to feature a bisexual and a transgender character…That 80s Show and The Education of Max Bickford, respectively …were also canceled last season.
“The diversity of the gay community cannot be conveyed through seven characters, especially when all of those characters are white,” said Scott Seomin, GLAAD’s entertainment media director.
Suzanna Walters, a professor of sociology at Georgetown University and author of All The Rage: The Story of Gay Visibility in America, said the decline of LGBT images on TV is a warning sign to the gay community and its straight allies. “Visibility is tenuous at best and can quickly run aground without continuous pressure for larger social transformations,” Walters says.
“Television critics have suggested that the fall television schedule represents a return to ‘comfort food’ for an American public unsettled by the events of the past year,” Seomin noted. “But the declining visibility of gay characters this fall can be comforting only for those who would prefer a world in which we did not exist.”
Visit the GLAAD Web site at www.glaad.org/org/projects/tv/index.html for a complete list of the lesbian and gay characters appearing this fall, and a season-to-season comparison.