What place for the LGBT + community?

Previously almost absent from the small screen, the LGBT + community has managed to carve out a place over time and, above all, over the past 20 years. Back on his place in the TV series.

Video by Clara Poudevigne

In recent years, the LGBT + community has encountered increasing visibility in the audiovisual sector. But is its representation in pop culture completely inclusive? If real progress has been made on the image of the community within our small screens, the road does not seem finished for all of the viewers to feel truly represented. In order to better understand the evolution of LGBT + characters in pop culture and the small screen, focus on a somewhat shy and discreet place to finally see a gradual and long but noticeable evolution.

LGBT + people caricatured at the outset

If today, there is a clear change in the way of representing an LGBT + individual on television, it has not always been with a kind look. Seeing a gay character, for example, was rare and the few times he appeared on the screen, the approach brought a very stereotypical and hetero-centered vision. Ridiculed, caricatured, sometimes seen as deviant, even dangerous … We had to be patient and lift the veil on a real taboo to break a caricatured vision of LGBT +. The little visibility given to the community gave way to a homophobic look. In question, the Televison Code. Like the Hays Code in the film industry, it was a guide that gave instructions for representing what was considered "good morals" at the time. At a time when homosexuality is still considered a mental illness, there is therefore little room left at that time to give visibility to homosexual, bisexual, foreign or even non-binary people.

This code of ethics, adopted by the National Association of Broadcasters for American television, thus left little room for minorities. Created in 1952 and having ended in 1983, its abolition thus gave birth to a new form of television programs. The 80s thus allowed the LGBT + community to glimpse visibility, although it is still difficult to assert itself in a predominantly heterosexual environment. In addition, if the small screen welcomes more and more LGBT + characters in its fictions, behind the camera, the taboo remains very real. Many screenwriters have not testified of their homosexuality within their team, leaving their workplace to be dominated by a single vision of the LGBT + community. All of this is without taking into account the way in which most of the characters are introduced, the only issue of their plot, despite everything, being their sexual orientations.

Towards programs that denounce LGBT + discrimination

From the 1980s, American television began gradually, timidly but gradually, to lift the veil on the queer community. Lesbian and gay characters may not be at the heart of the series but reveal a sometimes painful everyday life in a patriarchal society dominated by a heterosexual representation. Some programs have thus succeeded in denouncing the discrimination which LGBT + people may be victims of.

In addition, the 1990s began to liberate the LGBT + community from a halftone representation. The knockout probably comes from Ellen Degeneres whose character comes out in the series Ellen. At the same time, the American comedian and actress also reveals his own homosexuality. This announcement has the effect of a bomb on the American audiovisual landscape. If, at the time, it lost its job and contracts with certain brands, the LGBT + community finally felt represented. Even today, Ellen Degeneres is a flagship queer figure for many. The end of the 90s is somewhat freed from an omerta around the lack of representation of this community. Queer characters assert themselves on the small screen, whether in Will and grace, Buffy the Vampire Slayer or even later in Desperate Housewives a little later in the 2000s.

What if being LGBT + was no longer an issue at the heart of the narrative?

In addition, the arrival of streaming platforms has democratized the representation of LGBT + people within the series. In 2018, a new report showed that LGBT + characters from the American series are increasingly represented. The American organization Glaad produces the report called Were we are on TV each year. Out of a set of 857 recurring characters in prime time series, among these, 75 are gay, bisexual, trans or queer. In 2018, in total, there are 112 LGBT + characters. Before that, the number had never been higher.

If such progress has been seen over the years, the image of queer people on television deserves, for many, a new evolution. Denouncing discrimination remains a major utility, of course, but trivializing homosexuality, for example, within fictions will only make people more accepting of diverse sexual orientations and identities. Wouldn't focusing the narrative issue of a character around his gender identity or his sexuality be the best way to represent all viewers? We salute, for example, the series Glee which highlights a couple of gay teenagers. But if visibility is good for a series of FOX and targeting a young audience, many regret, like many other series, that the visibility of homosexuals is limited to male characters, men and cisgender.

Series Sabrina's new adventures, on Netflix, lifted the veil on a character who shed light on being non-binary. The character of Susie Putnam identifies with the promos he / she. He is in the process of self-acceptance. Many regretted that the term "non-binary" was not pronounced by all the inhabitants of the city, as if this identity did not exist. However, at the time when the series is broadcast, we are in 2018. Then, there was a desire, on the part of fans of the series, to see Susie as a lambda character, in her own right, where her identity not binary would not be at the center of his personality. Because, it must also be remembered that sexual orientation or gender identity is not a character trait.

The Were we are on TV report for 2018, nevertheless highlighted an effort of inclusiveness on the part of television productions: "This same group of characters also respects parity with an equal percentage of LGBTQ men and women, and for the very first time, there are more LGBTQ characters who are people of color than white LGBTQ characters " said Sarah Kate Ellis, president of the organization at the time.

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