Over the last decade, LGBTQ+ representation in mainstream media has rapidly improved in quantity and quality, from queer-coded Disney villains to series casting members of the LGBTQ+ community as queer main characters.
LGBTQ+ characters have been slow to appear in the limelight because of rules like the Hollywood Hays Code (1934-1968), the Code of Practices for Television Broadcasters (1952-1983), and the Comics Code Authority (1954-1989). These codes prohibited the portrayal of the LGBTQ+ community in movies, television shows, and comic books. The Hollywood Hays Code and Code of Practices for Television Broadcasters, however, allowed for queer characters if they were portrayed in a negative manner, creating a dangerous feedback loop of stigma around the LGBTQ+ community. These codes also created the “bury your gays” trope, where a character is killed off as soon as they are revealed to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community.
As more queer characters appear on screen, these problems persist.
Because of the codes, screenwriters began “queer-coding” LGBTQ+ characters by using stereotypes to imply that they are queer. Instead of explicitly mentioning if a character is queer, this technique encourages people to guess at and dictate others’ identities. Queer-coding also leaves many members of the community feeling invisible and “not queer enough,” and forces queer people to adhere to a stereotype. Queer-coding also makes both queer and non-queer people associate “villainous” characteristics with queerness. And queer-coding doesn’t just harm queer people because it reinforces suffocating gender roles by encouraging audiences to label any man “too feminine” as gay and any woman “too masculine” as lesbian.
Recently, a new phenomenon called queer-baiting has emerged where the media has begun to advertise representation for the queer community in hopes of gaining popularity without adequately representing the community. These movies and shows include no more than subtle hints that a character, often one with very little screen time, is queer. Queer-baiting capitalizes on the LGBTQ+ community while pushing them further into the margins of society.
However, queer representation began to improve in the late 1990s when in 1997 both Ellen DeGeneres’s character from the sitcom “Ellen” and DeGeneres herself came out as lesbian. DeGeneres received backlash from corporations and broadcasters, but her show became the first to have a lead character come out and DeGeneres became the first beloved household name to be out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
Soon after in 1998, when the popular sitcom “Will & Grace” was released, perceptions of the LGBTQ+ community significantly improved. According to Gallup, 2 years before the sitcom was released, 27% of American supported same-sex marriage, but when the series ended in 2006, 42% of Americans supported same-sex marriage.
In 2012, according to the Wall Street Journal, Joe Biden praised “Will & Grace” for having done “more to educate the American public than almost anything anybody has done so far.”
In 2009, RuPaul’s Drag Race helped bring drag queens, transgender and gender non-conforming people, and the overall queer community into mainstream media. RuPaul’s Drag Race became an iconic show in the queer community because it was one of the first shows to celebrate queer culture. RuPaul’s Drag Race also created more acceptance of gender nonconforming people and appreciation of queer culture in American society.
On May 21st, 2013 the first episode of “Steven Universe,” a children's cartoon produced by Rebecca Sugar, a bisexual and nonbinary person, was released. Steven Universe has the most (more than 39, according to Insider) queer characters in a kids’ cartoon and featured the first queer wedding on children’s television. The show helps erase the narrative that the LGBTQ+ community is too “inappropriate” or “immoral” to be discussed in child-friendly settings and has paved the way for shows like She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and The Owl House.
Then, in 2018, “Pose,” an award winning television series and dance musical centered around queer people of color in New York City, drag ballroom culture, and the HIV epidemic, was released. “Pose” spotlights real queer issues, celebrates queer culture, and helps queer people of color feel seen.
In 2022 the online comic “Heartstopper,” a romance centered around two boys in high school, was adapted into a television series. Both the comic and television series have become insanely popular, especially among teenagers. The show is a comfort show for many queer youth that displays members of the community in a relatable and nuanced manner.
Movies and television shows have made significant progress, but more needs to be done to highlight more diverse voices of the community. A majority of queer characters are white and cisgendered, and queer experiences beyond coming out are rarely represented. Transgender, asexual, and aromantic people need more visibility, bisexual and pansexual characters need to be less stereotyped, and queer characters of color need to be more common.
Good representation is important because the way a minority group is represented in mainstream media not only shapes how other groups perceive them, but also how they perceive themselves. Many queer and questioning youth lack exposure to queer issues and access to queer people in the real world, so their perceptions of themselves and their queer-ness is shaped by movies and television shows, making it essential for accurate representation in the media.
Since members of the LGBTQ+ community are so diverse, it is difficult to establish what good representation means. At the core of good representation is remembering and conveying that members of the queer community are people. LGBTQ+ characters should be more than “the queer character;” they should be complex, nuanced, and recurring characters important to a story. In order to do this, input from members of the community is essential to amplify LGBTQ+ voices.
Author’s Note: This is by no means a comprehensive list of all queer representation in the media. The links below can help you explore more about queer representation in media, and we’d love to hear about your favorite queer characters and media.
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