Tag Archives: lesbian representation

Mindy Kaling Is Creating a New Lesbian Comedy

If you loved the Mindy Project, then you’re going to fall head over heels for Mindy Kaling’s new series about a liberal lesbian couple who moves to conservative Middle America. 

The show, which is still untitled, follows a progressive lesbian couple named Laurel and Marisa. The women move with their teen son to Laurel’s hometown, a conservative small town in Kansas that may prove their expectations wrong.

For this project, Mindy Kaling has partnered with Mindy Project co-star, Ed Weeks, whom you’ll remember as the English doctor, Dr. Jeremy Reed. Weeks wrote the script with the writer of the long-running, award-winning British series Peep Show, Hannah Mackay – with the influence of Weeks, Kaling and Mackay, the series is guaranteed to be a side-splitter.

Not much is known about the series yet, except that it will be a single-camera comedy. Weeks and Mackay are no newcomers to the subject matter – last year, they sold a comedy about “a lesbian lothario and her cautious, straight male best friend.” That series appears to have died, but hopefully this new comedy will gather some steam. 

Lesbian and bisexual female representation on TV is at a high, but so is the death of those characters. At a time like this, lighthearted shows (presumably) lacking lesbian deaths are more than welcome. Hopefully Kaling will prove that a TV show can be successful without killing off every woman who loves another woman.

There’s no word on who will play Laurel and Marisa, but one can’t help but hope that we see more of Portia de Rossi, who plays the hilarious role of Lindsey Bluth in Arrested Development. And if there’s room for Ellen Page anywhere on the roster, no one will complain. We’ll just have to wait until next season to find out. Stay tuned!

While you’re waiting, satisfy your women-loving-women cravings with one of these must-watch web series.

LGBTQ Representation Hits High, But Broadcasters ‘Failed Queer Women With Toxic Message’

GLAAD’s Where We Are on TV report cites record-high LGBTQ representation, but the media advocacy group says that television “failed queer women”, killing off a staggering number of lesbian and bisexual female characters.

More than 25 lesbian and bisexual female characters died on scripted broadcast, cable and streaming series this year, the media advocacy group GLAAD found in its report on small-screen diversity.

While TV remains far ahead of film in gay representations, the medium “failed queer women this year” by continuing the “harmful ‘bury your gays’ trope,” the report said.

GLAAD president Sarah Kate Ellis writes

Television — and broadcast series more specifically — failed queer women… as character after character was killed, it served no other purpose than to further the narrative of a more central (and often straight, cisgender) character. [That] sends a toxic message.”

The violent deaths included characters Poussey Washington (played by Samira Wiley on “Orange is the New Black”) and Bea Smith (Danielle Cormack on “Wentworth”).

It’s part of a decade-long pattern in which gay or transgender characters are killed to further a straight character’s storyline, GLAAD said, sending what it called the “dangerous” message that gay people are disposable.

For its annual report, researchers tallied the LGBTQ characters seen or set to be portrayed in the period from June 2016 to May 2017. Counts were based on series airing or announced and for which casting has been confirmed.

The study, which in 2005 began examining other aspects of diversity on TV, found record percentages of people of color and people with disabilities depicted on broadcast shows.

Among the detailed findings:

  • Broadcast TV includes the highest percentage of regularly appearing gay characters — 4.8 percent — since Gay rights organization GLAAD began its count 21 years ago. Among nearly 900 series regular characters on ABC, CBS, CW, Fox and NBC, 43 characters are LGBTQ, up from 35 last season.
  • Streamed shows included 65 regular and recurring LGBTQ characters, up six from last season. Lesbians, including characters on “One Mississippi” and “Orange is the New Black,” account for the majority of characters, 43 percent, a far higher share than on broadcast or cable.
  • Cable series held steady with 142 regular and recurring LGBTQ characters, with a 5 percent increase in the number of gay men but a 2 percent drop in the number of lesbian characters depicted.
  • The number of transgender characters in regular or recurring appearances on all platforms has more than doubled from last season, from seven to 16.
  • Characters with a disability represented 1.7 percent of all regularly seen broadcast characters, up from 0.9 percent last season. Each platform has at least one LGBTQ character that’s HIV-positive, with only one such character a regular (Oliver on “How to Get Away with Murder”).
  • African-Americans will be 20 percent (180) of regularly seen characters on prime-time broadcast shows this season, the highest share yet found by GLAAD. But black women are underrepresented at 38 percent of the total, or 69 characters.
  • The percentage of regularly appearing Asian-Pacific Islanders on broadcast TV hit 6 percent, the highest tally found by GLAAD and slightly more than the group’s U.S. population percentage. Contributing to the increase are the Asian-American family shows “Fresh Off the Boat” and “Dr. Ken.”
  • Latino characters rose a point to 8 percent, equaling the highest representation found two seasons ago by GLAAD. That differs sharply from the 17 percent Latino representation in the U.S. population as measured by the Census Bureau, the report said.

 

 

 

 

New GLAAD Report States Streaming Services Lead LGBT Representation, But Queer Female Roles Still Fall Short On TV

The is week, GLAAD released its annual Where We Are on TV report; a comprehensive review of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) primetime characters in the 2015-16 television season.

This year marks the 20th year that GLAAD has tracked the presence of LGBT characters on television and for the first time, they have counted LGBT characters on original series which have premiered on the streaming content providers Amazon, Hulu and Netflix.

Of the 881 regular characters expected to appear on broadcast primetime scripted programming in the coming year, 35 (4%) were identified as gay, lesbian, or bisexual.

The highest percentage of LGBT characters GLAAD has ever counted on primetime scripted broadcast programming was 4.4% in the 2012-13 season.

CEO & President of GLAAD, added Sarah Kate Ellis

Each of us lives at the intersection of many identities and it’s important that television characters reflect the full diversity of the LGBT community. It is not enough to just include LGBT characters; those characters need to be portrayed with thought and care to accurately represent an often tokenized community.”

The full report can be downloaded from the GLAAD website. However, here are some of its key findings:


Broadcast needs to step up its game

The number of regular LGBT characters on cable shows increased from 64 to 84 (out of 142 characters total), with 58 recurring LGBT characters (up from 41 last year).

GLAAD acquired data from streaming services for the first time (Netflix, Amazon, Hulu), and found 43 LGBT characters out of 59 regulars.

OITNB-03

In contrast, the broadcast networks have 881 regular characters — a mere 35 of whom are LGBT this year.


Streaming services offer the most trans representation

Trans representation is still relatively new to television — but online streaming services are leading the charge. GLAAD found that 7% of characters on streaming services were trans, and that Netflix and Amazon both showcase trans leads (on Sense8 and Transparent).

Sense8 01

There are no transgender characters counted on primetime broadcast programming, while only three recurring trans characters were counted on cable (2%).


Bisexual representation needs work

Bisexual representations rose on both broadcast and cable this year with a notable increase. Unfortunately, many of these characters still fall into dangerous stereotypes about bisexual people.


Racial diversity is still an issue

All three programming platforms need to include more racially diverse LGBT characters

With 73% of the LGBT characters appearing on streaming series being white and 71% on cable, it is clear that all three programming platforms need to include more racially diverse LGBT characters.

gotham-109-06

Overall racial diversity is moving in the right direction with 33% (287) of 881 regular characters counted on broadcast programming being people of color, which is a six-point increase from last year.


Women are still underrepresented

43% of regular primetime characters are female (up from 40% last year), but this still doesn’t reflect the general population, where women make up 51%. Of the 145 black characters on broadcast primetime, only 41% were female (59 characters).


Disability representation is down

After increasing for two years, the percentage of characters portrayed living with disabilities decreased this year, to 0.9%. There is only one character across the combined pool of broadcast and cable who is HIV-positive.

Historians Discuss The Often Under-Appreciated Queer Female Pioneers Of Our Past (Video)

To celebrate LGBT History Month in the USA, HuffPost Live talked with lesbian historians Lillian Faderman (author of The Gay Revolution: The Story Of The Struggle) and Bonnie Morris (Professor of Women’s Studies, George Washington University and Georgetown University) to celebrate the often under-appreciated women-loving-women pioneers,

The discussion is focused on lesbians’ roles in the Stonewall movement, Sappho, Jane Addams, the Feminist movements, and trace lesbian representation in pop culture.

Watch below…