NEW YORK — TV shows like “Abbott Elementary,” “Hacks,” “Heartstopper,” “The Last of Us” and “Yellowjackets” helped increase the ranks of LGBTQ+ characters on prime time by 4% over the previous season, according to a new study by the advocacy group GLAAD.
This year’s “Where We Are on TV” study, released Thursday, counted 489 LGBTQ characters across scripted prime-time broadcast, cable and streaming shows — up 21 additional characters. It marks a boost after two years of decline, but remains far below the 2021-2022 record high of 775 characters.
Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of the group, warned that those numbers could still decrease soon: More than 200 of the LGBTQ+ characters counted this year — in shows like “Heartstopper,” “Harlem” and “Elite” — will not be returning due to a flurry of series cancellations, endings or because they were limited series.
“Storytelling brings us together and this current cultural and political climate calls on creatives and executives to double down on fair and accurate stories of LGBTQ people,” Ellis writes in the report.
GLAAD added that the number of transgender characters on TV has slightly increased from last year to reach 33 — trans women, seven trans men, and two nonbinary characters — but only four trans characters appear on series that have been officially renewed.
The report is the 20th edition of the annual tracking by GLAAD and charts a remarkable leap from just 47 LGBTQ+ characters in the first study. It arrives as President Donald Trump has targeted transgender and nonbinary people with a series of executive orders — including one declaring the existence of two unchangeable sexes — stripping government websites of “gender ideology” an reinstituting a ban on transgender service members in the military.
A recent Gallup poll found 9.3% of U.S. adults identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or something other than straight or heterosexual. The percentage has more than doubled since Gallup first measured LGBTQ+ identification in 2012.
The GLAAD study found that representation on broadcast and cable have continually declined, while streaming programming saw an increase of LGBTQ+ characters.
ABC last season had the largest percentage of network LGBTQ+ series regulars — with 12.9% — while Netflix had the most LGBTQ+ characters on streaming, with 177. It found that the eight major streamers added 45 characters from the 327 in the previous period.
GLAAD noted LGBTQ+ characters in such network shows as NBC’s “Brilliant Minds,” which has a gay lead, CBS dramas “Matlock” and “Watson,” both of which feature supporting queer women, and ensemble characters on comedies like Fox’s “Going Dutch” and NBC’s “St. Denis Medical.”
On streaming, GLAAD cited Netflix’s “The Four Seasons,” “Arcane” and “Kaos,” and Amazon’s “Clean Slate,” “Harlem” and “The Wheel of Time.” Hulu, meanwhile, had “Mid-Century Modern,” “Big Boys” and “Wreck.”
The study found that the percentage of characters of color slightly increased up to 51% of all LGBTQ+ characters counted, and, for the second year in a row, only one LGBTQ+ character was depicted as living with HIV — but that character, on HBO Max’s “Cris Miró,” won’t be returning.
In their 2019-20 study GLAAD had asked the industry to reach 20% representation of regularly seen LGBTQ+ characters on all three platforms by 2025, and to ensure that half of LGBTQ+ characters on every TV platform were people of color within the next two years. This year’s report does not include a challenge tied to a specific percentage.
“As this study and the TV industry have evolved, so too have our benchmarks,” GLAAD said. “There is a need for urgent action and improvement today across all platforms with this newest study finding a significant portion of the LGBTQ characters counted will not return.”
