Why We Need More (Good) LGBT+ Representation in Modern Day Media

Though LGBT+ representation is growing in modern media and continues to grow, there is still very little good representation. I recently started watching the television show The Umbrella Academy (which is extremely  good and I highly recommend to anyone that hasn’t watched it) and was thrilled to see there was an LGBT character among the main cast. The actor, Robert Sheehan, commented that he didn’t want Klaus to be labeled as ‘the gay character’ because “that label becomes defining and it kind of reduces all else about the character.” 

I found this statement interesting because that is exactly what a lot of the modern LGBT “representation” is  – a token “gay” character among an all otherwise straight ensemble. Though the character is far much more than their gender or sexuality, that label is all they are reduced to because  – I’m not even completely sure why. Because they’re different? Because they’re the only LGBT character in the cast? Because the character is portrayed flamboyantly? All I know is I’d like to see this sort of labeling stop. Characters like Klaus are so well written, developed and portrayed onscreen, but are just widdled down to their sexuality. This however, isn’t the only reason I believe the  LGBT  community is misrepresented in the media. 

There is a well-known marketing technique used by very many movies and television shows known as “ queerbaiting” in which the writers of said media will hint or tease a same-sex relationship but not actually depict it in the show. A textbook example of this is Riverdale  – seriously, what the hell was that random kiss between Betty and Veronica? Although I commend them for actually adding a real same-sex relationship later on in the show (better late than never I suppose), the Beronica kiss was absolutely unnecessary, as they clearly had no intention to develop a relationship between the two characters. So why did they do this? The answer is simple  – to get people from the LGBT community to watch the show.

There’s also what’s known as the “Bury Your Gays” trope  – I don’t want to use named examples due to spoilers, but this cliché essentially means that a  LGBT character is introduced and later on killed in the story  – a lot of the times this death occurs as an “accident” or is completely  irrelevant to the plot, which is utter bull@#% if you ask me. I’ve personally  seen this trope used in far too many television shows and could name several off of the top of my head. Don’t get me wrong, people die in movies and television and I understand this. But this trope is so ridiculously overused  and I have witnessed it far too many times to be able to dismiss it as “part of the plot”. 

It may not ever completely go away, but I hope to see less and less of these kind of tropes in the future and more good LGBT representation that shows up once in a blue moon. Baby steps. 

• LGBTQ+