Disturbing Trend: Gay Male Representation on TV Being Erased

It definitely feels like there are more lesbians/bisexual women on TV nowadays then there were even a few years ago. Especially for American shows. Internationally seems a bit better.

The over representation of bisexuals is almost all due to bisexual women.

if you bothered to read it you would see that the number of gay characters went UP

MARY! Five percent is not a lot at all, these things fluctuate slightly year to year

But where are The Demisexuals?

We demand to get screen time! You are slaying us with your cold disdain!

R5 Aren't they just being like 95% of straight girls? We have to have a relationship, they say. And, I'm like I really just want to get my dick sucked I ain't buying ring.

Even on DL, bisexual doesn't exist!

If you add up all the T who are actually men, males are still overrepresented.

The number of bisexuals is ridiculous. Makes lazy storytelling easier.

How do women only make up 47% of the characters but lesbians make up the majority? That alone shows that it's not the lesbians taking the gay men's roles, it's the bisexuals and the T who are being classified as women for this.

Writers in Hollywood right now are the most pathetically timid sheep you will ever meet. Going out of their way to cosign bullshit identities as trans and non binary. These things are literally not based in fact or reality.

I have been saying this for YEARS but Datalounge didn't give a shit. The erasure of gay men is happening because society worships trannies and dykes. Tv has EXPODED with lesbian and trans characters. Gay men are still not as accepted in society, it's the whole HIV/AIDS thing and that "anal sex is gross". We will continue to see a decline because sadly gay men don't give a fuck about representation. They don't demand a change. No gay news outlet will report on this. Nothing will change unless people start caring.

R4 This has been the trend for YEARS. Please pay attention, dear. Every year is a new low for number of gay (male) characters on tv.

R9 Yup. We have gay showrunners and storytellers on several tv shows yet they either don't create gay storylines at all, or they do a shitty job at it, like Kevin from Riverdale. Of course the same gay showrunner doesn't seem to have any problem creating a lesbian storyline, it's only the gay one that sucks. Go, figure. This is the case for so many shows. The CW shows treat their gay characters like shit, unlike the lesbians.

It's become a running joke with a friend of mine that any TV programme we both watch will have Lesbian Drama in it.

Lesbians/bi women are not taking the place of gay men - the problem is the trannies.

OP is crazy and can't read or understand the stats noted in the story. She'll be glad to know that crazy is up 2.1% this year.

🥱🥱🥱🥱🥱

I think this is due to the demonization of men in general and the increase in female-focused content. Also, as one poster mentioned above, an increasing number of younger women see sex with men as "gross" and "predatory" so the lesbian thing gets the nod.

I see more trans replacing gay men

R17 I think you nailed it.

Trans have replaced gay men as allies for women. As an eldergay, a lot of gay men previously assumed that they would be elevated with women as they waged the war on straight men. The opposite has happened. Gay men have been left behind and the trans lobby has taken their place. Sooner or later, most men, both gay and straight, come to realize that for many women (not all, before some numpty chimes in), what they want is the only thing that matters and popular media supports this belief.

R20 Wtf are you on? Trans ideology is in direct conflict with women's rights. Women are not siding with them. Trans hate women.

No, we're just part of the mainstream now. There are others who are fighting for what we have achieved and are demanding and getting greater prominence. Just the same way we did.

Enjoy the mainstream. We fought hard for it. Now, how do we want to treat other people?

[quote]Tv has EXPODED

Gosh, I can't imagine why no one has been listening to you, Mr. Expoded.

OP has misrepresented the article. He's lying. You've been told this multiple times and you're pretending otherwise.

Lesbians are 40%, gay are 35%, bi are 19%, trans are 6%.

Last year gay were 40%, lesbian 34%, bi 18%, and trans not mentioned in percentages but only in numbers, i.e. 10 characters.

There are only 8 characters this year, meaning the number of trans characters has GONE DOWN.

[quote]There are eight (six percent) transgender characters anticipated on primetime broadcast network’s scripted programming; four regular characters and four recurring. This represents a decrease of two characters and four percentage points from the previous study

The total number of gay characters last year was 40, this year it's 49.

The total number of gay characters WENT UP by 18%. Even if the percentage of gays out of all LGBT characters has gone down, the number of gay characters in shows has increased.

R23 I meant to say EXPLODED.

R26, you said "Every year is a new low for number of gay (male) characters on tv." That's a lie. Care to explain yourself?

R24 But most of the bi characters are women, not men. That means there are many more lesbians on tv in the US. Sadly that is the case all over the world. The lesbians have massive representation on tv all over the world. The same is not the case for gay men. Gay men are few and far between also in the rest of the world, with the exception of the UK.

It seems to me like gay men are ubiquitous in TV and movies nowadays; unfortunately, almost always in comedies as sassy-supportive friends and almost never in dramas.

I'm not really looking for them, but I can't think of a lot of lesbian characters.

There are more and more transgender characters every year for sure, and it's very noticeable, but it reminds me of when gay people started showing up in entertainment 25 years ago. Ten years ago, there were hardly any trans characters. A young coworker of mine rewatched Ugly Betty recently and she was offended that Rebecca Romijn played a trans woman rather than a trans person having been cast in the role. It reminds me of the post-Ellen/Will & Grace era when GLAAD et al were calling for gay actors to be cast in gay roles.

This all seems like normal progress to me.

Gay men yelling "trans will not replace us!" strikes me as sadly the same as old white men from Idaho marching with swastikas in MAGA hats and chanting "Jews will not replace us!"

This is fantastic news!!!

This thread started out with shrieks that gay characters were being erased, their numbers were dropping, that bis and trans were increasing in number and erasing gays. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE CLAIMS IS A LIE.

Gay characters increased in number, bis stayed the same, trans went down.

You're moving goalposts now because you don't want to answer why you lied about the report.

"...society worships trannies and dykes," R10?

You could have fooled me!!

Lesbians and bisexual women will always be over represented because they serve as a fantasy for straight male viewers.

…and straight male tv writers and producers.

Is tv representation the end all? I'm comforted just by knowing the world is filled with homos.

[Quote] Even on DL, bisexual doesn't exist!

Sad but true.

I said it before and I’ll say it again, nobody pushes and promotes homosexuality more than straight men

It’s female homosexuality, but homosexuality nonetheless, I can’t even follow Cobra Kai fan pages without a bunch of horny fanboys commenting and making lewd remarks about Samantha and Tori going down on each other

These same hypocritical motherfuckers would have a snowflake nervous breakdown if I posted the same about Johnny and Daniel, I would also be called a faggot, perverted and every other name in the book

Gay men NEED to call straight men out on this , the one that push and promote female homosexuality are the first motherfuckers to bitch and cry like scared little girls when there’s even a hint of male homosexuality in their tv or films

And a majority of women don’t like seeing two men together , so gay and bisexual men get the hatred from both sides. The one soap I watch has a gay couple and the women viewers are so anti gay male towards them on social medial calling gay men “perverted” “disgusting “ I was told by one woman “It’s in the Bible that they should be put to death” etc

People still really HATE male homosexuality

Gay men are so 2005.

R21 While you're right about trannies, many women are too stupid to see that. They side with trannies and label other women "TERFS."

Hush, R25, quit stepping on OP’s false narrative.

GLAAD should be renamed TAAD since all the care about now is TRANS.

Neither "GAY" nor "Lesbian" which is what the G and L are supposed to stand for are ANYWHERE on their HOMEPAGE, nor in their main website navigation menus (yet there are sections for "Black queer," "Bisexual" "Transgender," and "Spanish/LatinX".

Don't believe me? Take a look.

R41 This stuff is in everything.

My sister is an academic and told me that academia is now "obsessed with identity," but being gay or a woman means nothing anymore. That one has to be transgender or be multiple things" like a "black queer."

Good. Gay men have only supported trans "women" taking opportunities from women and girls. Now you're getting a taste of your medicine.

*openly

[quote]Gay Male Representation on TV Being Erased

I'm trying my damndest over here...

Every time a Ryan Murphy series fails, overall TV representation of gay men and trans women drops by double digits.

And gay viewers do not consistently support shows with gay male characters. Instead, gay men harp about how that character is not truly representative of gays. I think shows with gay women and trans get more support from LGBTQIA audiences.

Five percent or five percent points? The decrease seems a lot more massive than just five percent. Everything is trans now.

R48, that is a baldfaced lie. There are way more gay and bi characters than trans characters

R24, you are quoting the broadcast figures. The overall figures for television include broadcast, cable and streaming.

The overall figures actually seem to be missing from the report for gay men and women, but not for trannies and bi's and every other minority under the sun. I'm sure that's just a coincidence /sarcasm.

By my calculations, gay men make up 33.28% of all the 637 "LGBT" characters, while lesbians make up 31.71%.

So stop bitching. Gay men make up the majority of characters across all services, as they always have.

When The Closer / Major Crimes went off the air a large portion of gay male representation was eliminated, bot with the gay characters and actual gay cast members.

When you include bi women R50, the proportion becomes more skewed towards women though. And we all know that lesbian and bi women are generally thought of as acceptable to straight men.

R45 I wish you wouldn't, Greg.

I'm surprised the T loons are protesting being a separate category since, ya know, they are actually real men and women...straight ones.

[quote] Writers in Hollywood right now are the most pathetically timid sheep you will ever meet. Going out of their way to cosign bullshit identities as trans and non binary

Even Speilberg is doing it. This new West Sde Story has someone known as "Ezra" AND "Iris".

In terms of gay male representation, Network TV has always mf'ing sucked ass. They're still stuck in the 1990s, back when straight men were in charge and they occasionally threw a bone re: gay male characters, and it was usually as a joke.

[quote] Lesbians and bisexual women will always be over represented because they serve as a fantasy for straight male viewers.

I blame the stupid straight male assholes of the 1990s (Howard Stern, Jerry Springer) for this thinking. Their whole jam can't expire soon enough.

Can we stop using the word homophobic

Most homophobia is directed towards gay and even bisexual MEN, Homophobia implies hatred of anyone who likes the same sex (male or female)

Most people who are extremely anti gay male (or as people stupidity say homophobic), have no problems with and even love and promote female homosexuality, so how can they be homophobic?

I use “anti gay male” in place of it

Oh, but don’t you know how critically important nonbinary visibility is, OP? They’re such oppressed victims. We must respect their right to be their authentic selves and enjoy that identity they invented 6 months ago. Gays move out of the way!

[quote] Most people who are extremely anti gay male (or as people stupidity say homophobic), have no problems with and even love and promote female homosexuality

More and more, based on what I've seen/experienced, that's a tired prejudice lingering from relics of the 20th century.

R60 it’s the norm in this well

Lesbians = good, hot, a beautiful thing

Gay men= gross, disgusting, perverted

As a masculine bisexual man, I’ve heard it my entire life, I’d be rich if I had a dollar every time I heard straight people say that

It’s really sad because they’re the overwhelming majority and we still have to answer to them day in and day out

[quote] [R60] it’s the norm in this well

It's not perfect, but I've seen major positive change re: gay male representation on TV just within the last 15 years.

Before that, they'd throw you a Wilson Cruz character in My So-Called Life every other year or so, and you'd better like it, because that's all you're gonna get!

Che Diaz should not be considered a lesbian character.

There's a view R58 that straight men only endorse female homosexuality because of their toxic masculinity and homophobia. They fear being perceived as gay so they love female homosexuality because it validates their "straightness". It's still homophobic because their appreciation for gay women is voyeuristic and exploitative.

^^ I should say SOME straight men. Obviously not all are like that.

R64 not it’s exploitation of women, I’ll give you that, but it’s not homophobic, once again it circles back to being anti gay male, that’s the whole reason that they do it

And a lot of straight women, I’ve noticed, are fine with and aren’t as turned off by female homo/bisexuality as they are by male homosexuality or bisexuality

What’s their excuse?

Again it all boils down to having anti gay male feelings

Since when do straight men like lesbians in anything other than porn? To suggest that straight men are okay with being "excluded" from lesbian relationships is laughable. It threatens their ego.

Hearing that a woman is straight is a cue for them to try and sexually harass that woman into sleeping with them. They don't believe that lesbian sex is "real" sex because it doesn't involve a cock. Something they have in common with a number of gay men, of course.

R10 Preach. I wish we could meet over coffee.

R67 porn aside, lesbians in general are more likes by straight people than gay men, I know many men who are friends with butch lesbians and they talk about their love of pussy with them

Women are allowed to be masculine and wear men’s clothes and be strong

Both men and women get real pissy over a man doing the same thing in reverse

I remember working with this really butch lesbian, who only wore men’s clothes and who would tie back her boobs to appear more manly and all the straight guys I worked with loved her and her girlfriend who also worked there was considered hot, they used to lie on top of each other at break time

Everyone just loved them

I came out as bisexual at that time and it was hell on earth at the job, I stopped being invited to basketball games with the guys, the bull lesbian was there though, and I even received death threats from those same guys that loved the lesbians and of course the lesbians never had my back at all

It was insane

*hearing that a woman is a lesbian

R67 since when are straight men threatened by being excluded from woman and woman sex?

They’re the ones who constantly promote it and get their girlfriend’s and wives to dyke out, almost every straight guy I’ve ever been close with wants their girl to hook up with girls, many have say they don’t even have to be in the room with them, just the idea of it

Florida: don't say gay!

GLAAD: we're way ahead of ya!

The whining gay male MRA on this thread is almost as tiring as the straight incel MRAs. I also love that he is spending his time gaymansplaining to lesbians how accepted they are in this world.

[quote]porn aside, lesbians in general are more likes by straight people than gay men, I know many men who are friends with butch lesbians and they talk about their love of pussy with them

First of all, "porn aside" negates your entire argument because it makes up 95% of straight males' everyday "relationships" with lesbians. You've also seemingly forgotten about all the little straight girl hags who worship gay men. Straight men do not like real life lesbians. They like their fantasy lesbians. Just like straight women like their fantasy gays. Even in something like fanfiction and romance writing, it's straight women writing endless stories about gay men or turning their favorite characters gay for each other. It is the rare straight man that hangs out with or even thinks of a butchy or sporty lesbian.

Reading into the mind d of an actual terf lesbian is hilarious. The indoctrination , the rabid hate that only shows how little actual experience they have with men...honestly it's cartoonish at this point,

% percent aint that much but what do you expect from an ideology that demonizes cis men? A rich white straight woman has more woke clout than a gay man does at this point..

R73 that’s an extremely small percentage of the female population that ships gay male characters and most straight men I know have told me that wouldn’t put up with a woman and would probably break up with her if she watched gay male porn, that disgusting shot according to them

Gay and bisexual men get all the hate directed towards them just for existing

OP is the Loon

R73 in general from experience, more woman are more comfortable and even turned on by lesbian sex and relationships

And these are women who see they’re straight

Like one straight woman told me, “there’s always feeling with two men that they’re doing something inherently wrong”

We have bigger things to worry about right now. Think about Ukraine and Putin’s possible attack of a NATO country. I’m just happy to be able to have gay sex in peace.

I'm a woman, straight , that can't get off from any porn other than lesbian. It has nothing to do with my sexual orientation because I genuinely don't feel I have ever been physically attracted to a woman in my 41 years, though I've had my "crushes". But there is sometimes a disconnect with what one finds visually arousing and what wants for themselves as a partner, in the real world. Don't some lesbians get aroused by male on male porn?

Anyway, I love gay men and lesbians, I find the whole non binary/asexual thing boring as hell. Those characters never have a lick of sexual charisma imo.

R80 yes, most lesbians love gay male porn for whatever weird reason

It’s a big thing in the lesbian world

One lesbian told me because it’s “the most masculine thing in the world to watch “

R66. You don't know what you're talking about. How is it not homophobia when the appeal of lesbians to straight men is predicated on the homophobic fear of being perceived as gay? Furthermore, as you admit, appreciation of same-sex relationships between women is exploitative. It's homophobic precisely because its exploitative - lesbians are not seen as people with agency, genuine desire and deep relationships outside the heteronormative norm. They are seen as transgressive women sexually objectified by men to further their "straightness" and achieve sexual gratification.

Catering to the straight male gaze does nothing to advance the cause of the gay community. It merely pays lip service to it, indulging straight men whilst making them feel progressive and accepting.

I can't speak to why straight women may endorse same-sex relationships between women more than those between men. It might be that women are more empathetic towards other women, or that gender norms portray men's (sexual) role as rigid but women's as more flexible. Thus, women might be more accepting of same-sex relationships between women because they have internalised heteronormative norms that such relationships are more acceptable than that of those between men. Many women internalise these sorts of misogynistic and exploitative norms all the time unfortunately.

I don't know one lesbian who loves gay male porn. Lesbian porn, for the most part, is laughable because 99% of it is made for straight men so it's filled with blonde bimbos with basketball tits and talon-like fingernails who inevitably want some random fat guy involved. Straight porn at least lets lesbians take on the figurative role of the guy fucking the woman, but most of that is shit too because it's all focused on the guy getting off. There's not a lot of good porn for lesbians at all so gay male porn is just some more bad porn that some lesbians watch and a lot of that is out of curiosity.

We need a nice twink with a bubble butt rapping WAP. And NOT Lil Nas X.

Just saw this 'article' about shows that were either added to streaming or had new episodes last month and it's very lesbian

As I've warned earlier, any depiction of a gay character is now always given to a QUEER character, generally one of unspecified gender with an odd mien, stange statement hair, and kooky clothes...or a TRANS WOMAN OF COLOR sashaying around like a drag queen.

These types are wholly synonymous with "gay" now, and one must always say "LGBTQIA+" and never say gay, or lesbian...ever!

all the women screaming about trannies and pretending as if nearly every long series never had a lesbian episode. Or aggressive rugmunching series for decades on. At best they should be bitching about the amount of femmes and lack of mannish, penis envy, drunk and violent, butch lesbians but no, they have to scream about the men (except not trans-men, only men in general and trans-women) because they are by large just self serving cunts that don't give a shit about your representation, need for space, or whatever. end of the day, you're just another privileged cocksucker, a cis (presumed to be) white (even if you're dark as night because you're) male scum. (and why won't anyone think of the po' innocent wimins that need to be protected from the big bad world. How dare you open the door for them, but that's the patriarchy for you, even the gay men are trying to fuck them.)

R87

I love you.

That is all.

yes, so they collectively scream fuck you for crying about homophobia and denying their part in creating this nwo of the trans-women co-opting the crybully tactics they've used for decades.

Like all troll threads these days, this thread just kept going even after the lies were debunked.

It's embarrassing how many people on DL are desperate to believe lies told to them by trolls.

[quote]The overall figures actually seem to be missing from the report for gay men and women

There is no combined overall figure for broadcast, streaming and cable for any LGBT group included in the reports. You're just trying to imply I was lying about the stats, I'll put them together for you and everyone else who wants to think that gays are being erased.

The truth is that even if percentages went down, there was an increase in gay characters across the board, especially on streaming where gay characters doubled.

--

Last year, broadcast: 34% lesbian, 40% gay, 18% bisexual (34, 40, and 18 characters, respectively)

This year, broadcast: 40% lesbian, 35% gay, 19% bi (56, 49 and 27 characters, respectively)

[bold] Between last year and this year, the percentage of gay characters in broadcast shows went down, but the number of characters increased from 40 to 49 [/bold]

--

Last year, cable: 26% lesbian, 36% gay, 31% bi (31, 43 and 37 characters, respectively)

This year, cable: 35% lesbian, 33% gay, 31% bi (48, 45 and 43 characters, respectively)

[bold] Between last year and this year, the percentage of gay characters in cable shows went down, but the number of characters increased from 43 to 45 [/bold]

--

Last year, streaming: 28% lesbian, 36% gay, 31% bi (40, 51 and 44 characters, respectively)

This year, streaming: 27% lesbian, 33% gay, 32% bi (98, 118 and 113 characters, respectively)

[bold] Between last year and this year, the percentage of gay characters in streaming shows went down, but the number of characters increased from 51 characters to 118 characters, i.e. it MORE THAN DOUBLED [/bold]

R32 I'm talking about representation on tv and in movies. Lots of lesbian characters in movies and on tv, not so for gay male characters. It's not only about numbers either. It's about depiction. Lesbians and bi women get to kiss and have sex. You rarely see gay male characters on tv having sex, let alone kiss. They are most often asexual since gay male sexuality is still taboo in society, unlike lesbian sexuality which is a turn on for most men.

Jesus, the whole fucking board is nothing but jackasses moving goalposts.

OP says gay representation is being erased and gay characters are dwindling. That isn't true and the numbers are posted multiple times, and what happens? A new fuckstick comes along and says oh, it's not ABOUT the NUMBERS, it's about LEZZIES getting to FUCK ON TV while us GAYS aren't ALLOWED.

You have absolutely no idea how much gay sex is on cable and streaming, you're just making something up because your goal here is to get gays upset about how those damn dykes, trannies and queers are takin' away our freedumz.

Unfortunately for you, you seem to have missed the fact that 80% of DL are trolls just like you. You're probably talking to all of 3 or 4 actual gays on this thread, none of whom are so stupid as to be fooled by the things you say.

What about BL and it's shows?

So much MRA whining on this thread. And then there's R87 who is either a parody or should go commit himself to a loony bin.

R85, Autostraddle is a lesbian site and the article is specifically talking about gay women and, not surprisingly anymore, trannies. (Technically, I should say Autostraddle used to be a lesbian site because it's been trannitized to an insane degree.)

It will require gay men willing to tell gay stories. No one else is going to come to tell our stories. We have to do it ourselves and then support those shows/tv movies when they come out.

The LGBT movement has been poisonous to gay rights. Gay men have to start advocating and pushing for gay representation in tv and film.

R96 But even gay men won't tell gay stories. They are hypocrites. The Riverdale showrunner is gay yet Kevin is one of the worst gay characters ever. He has been treated like shit. It's weird because he doesn't seem to have any problem writing lesbian characters, only gay (male) ones.

Ryan Murphy seems to be one of the few gay men out there who writes gay stories (or produces them) but even he isn't 100% reliable.

[quote]Ryan Murphy seems to be one of the few gay men out there who writes gay stories (or produces them) but even he isn't 100% reliable.

It's disgusting how much valuable airtime he devotes to cis gay men when that could be going to lesbians, bulldaggers, chicks with dicks, asexuals, etc...

[quote]There is no combined overall figure for broadcast, streaming and cable for any LGBT group included in the reports. You're just trying to imply I was lying about the stats, I'll put them together for you and everyone else who wants to think that gays are being erased.

Why would I be implying that you're lying R91? I was pointing out that you were posting incomplete numbers, is all.

And yes, there is actually an overall figure for trannies and bisexuals etc. in the "executive summary", but not one for gay men and women, which is why I had to tally the numbers myself. Again, for anyone who didn't see it the first time - GAY MEN MAKE UP THE LARGEST SHARE OF "QUEER" CHARACTERS, as they always have.

I was making the same point that you were, which should have been pretty clear from my post.

Interesting