Media advocacy group GLAAD released its sixth annual report detailing LGBTQ representation in major motion pictures–and the results are looking pretty dismal.
The Studio Responsibility Index found that of the 109 releases from seven major studios in 2017, just 14 had characters that were LGBTQ–a drop from 2016 where there were 23 LGBTQ characters out of 125 releases.
GLAAD grades studios with a score of excellent, good, insufficient, poor, or failing, calculating the number of films each studio put out with not just how many LGBTQ characters are present, but also how they’re presented. Warner Brothers came in last with the only “failing” grade of the bunch this year, while 20th Century Fox and Universal scored the best with “insufficient.” Yay?
GLAAD docked Warner Brothers points for omitting gay characters or relationships that were in the source material (Wonder Woman; Everything, Everything) or making “incessant gay panic jokes” (CHiPS).
GLAAD’s methodology is based on the Vito Russo Test, a riff off of the famous Bechdel Test that grades how women are portrayed in works of fiction. To pass the test, which is named after GLAAD co-founder Vito Russo, the film must contain a character that is not just “identifiably lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer,” but also “tied into the plot in such a way that their removal would have a significant effect”–yet the characters cannot be “solely or predominantly defined by their sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Here’s how each studio fared by The Studio Responsibility Index:
20th Century Fox (insufficient): 14 films released; 2 LGBTQ inclusive films; 2 films passed the Vito Russo Test
Universal Pictures (insufficient): 14 films released; 4 LGBTQ inclusive films; 1 film passed the Vito Russo Test
Lionsgate Entertainment (failing): 19 films released; 2 LGBTQ inclusive films; 2 films passed the Vito Russo Test
Paramount Pictures (poor): 11 films released; 2 LGBTQ inclusive films; 1 film passed the Vito Russo Test
Sony Pictures (poor): 25 films released; 1 LGBTQ inclusive film; 1 film passed the Vito Russo Test
The Walt Disney Studios (poor): 8 films released; 1 LGBTQ inclusive film; 1 film passed the Vito Russo Test
Warner Brothers (failing): 18 films released; 2 LGBTQ inclusive films; 1 film passed the Vito Russo Test
Read GLAAD’s full Studio Responsibility Index here.
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