Hollywood studio movies have made gains in depicting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer characters, but the industry still has far more ground to cover to fully reflect the LGBTQ community, according to GLAAD’s eighth annual Studio Responsibility Index unveiled on Thursday. (THR)
Of the 118 films released in 2019, 22 (18.6 percent) included characters that were lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer (LGBTQ). The numbers climbed a smidge from last year’s report which clocked 20 out of 110 (18.2 percent) films as LGBTQ-inclusive. (Deadline)
For the third year in a row, transgender characters were entirely absent from releases of the studios included in the study: Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, STX Films, United Artists Releasing, Universal Pictures, The Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros. (USA Today)
Equally troubling was a downward trend in racial diversity. In 2019, 34 percent of LGBTQ characters were people of color (17 out of 50), down from 42 percent in 2018. GLAAD is calling on the studios to ensure that at least half of their LGBTQ characters are people of color by 2022. (Variety)