Hollywood: World Centre Of Homophobia

A new report has condemned Hollywood film and television studios for not giving enough screen time to the LGBT community and other minorities.

Just days before the Oscars, the study produced by the Media, Diversity and Social Change Initiative at the University of Southern Cali­for­nia found that across ten major outlets, everyone of them failed to be diverse.

“We don’t have a diversity problem. We have an inclusion crisis,” said Professor Stacy L. Smith – one of the reports authors.

The study examined 109 films and 305 first run TV shows between 2014 and 2015 and found that after analysing more than 11,000 speaking roles, less than two percent identified as LGBT.

Of this, only seven were transgender and four of them from the same TV show.

The report also condemned the fact that women and ethnic minorities are underrepresented and accused Hollywood of “whitewashing”.When we start to step back to see this larger ecology, I think we see a picture of exclusion," added Professor Smith. "And it doesn't match the norms of the population of the United States." ...

Pink News.

This really is first class nonsense.

LOL! etc.

This is the kind of junk GLAAD do with their annual surveys of LGBT representation in the media - sit and watch a film, stopwatch in hand.

• Hollywood still 'straight, white, boys club' finds major diversity survey, Guardian.

GLAAD: Numbers

The US pressure group Glaad (formerly the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) has released its 20th annual report, which tracks the number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender characters on scripted, primetime television.

The study found that while there is increasing LGBT representation on broadcast, cable and streaming television, the characters are overwhelmingly white.

On broadcast networks, 69% of gay characters are white, 19% are black, 7% are Latino and 6% Asian. On cable and streaming platforms respectively, 71% and 73% of gay characters are white.

The success of more racially diverse TV shows including Empire, Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder has had some effect, with a 6% rise in gay characters of colour from the year before...

Glaad found that 4% of all regular characters on primetime, scripted television on ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and the CW are LGBT, up 1% from the previous year and roughly on a par with the percentage of gay men and lesbians in the US population.

Fewer than half of these LGBT characters were women: 43%, up 3% from the year before but, said the organisation, underrepresenting women in the US population... 

Guardian. 

Forgive me, but apart from Latinos, it sounds like this pretty much reflects estimates of America's LGBT populations, with if anything blacks being over-represented, as are lesbians.

Anyway, well done to the multi-million dollar pink bean counters at GLAAD!

Quantity over quality - fuck yeah!

* US Census 2010 Black 13%, Latino 17%, Asians 5%. Surveys consistently show more men than women identifying as gay or lesbian, often by a figure of two-to-one. There may well be other factors at play, but as we have no idea what makes people homosexual, there is no reason why the numbers should be equal.

Spirit Day: Wear Purple

Millions [sic] go purple on Spirit Day in a stand against bullying and to show their support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth.

Observed annually since 2010, individuals, schools, organizations, corporations, and public figures wear purple, which symbolizes 'spirit' on the rainbow flag.

GLAAD.

Will this purple helmet do?

GLAAD: Imperial Arrogance

Disgustingly fawning, uncritical interview with GLAAD's president by GSN's idiot-in-chief, Tris Reid Smith.

GLAAD: Hollywood Must Do Better

This video compiles some of the anti-LGBT moments GLAAD has encountered in Hollywood film over the last five years.

In which some people get called bad words like 'fag', just like happens in the real world they're trying to portray.

Oh boo hoo squish.

Owen Jones: Unreal

One-dimensional uber-camp clowns, storylines centred on “being gay”, potential sexual menaces who want to get into the pants of straight men, lesbians whose sexuality makes them a challenge for men to turn: here are how LGBT characters often appear on our screens. But that’s if they even appear at all. According to a new study by Glaad – which campaigns for LGBT representation in the media – there has been a small increase in films with LGBT characters, but from a low base. Out of 114 films they looked at, released in 2014, 17.5% featured non-straight characters, up from 16.7% the year before. Many of these depictions were problematic, with only just over half passing the “Vito Russo test”, which measures the quality of the representations. (A film only passes the Vito Russo test if it includes a LGBT character, where they are not entirely defined by their sexual orientation or gender, and they have a significant impact on the plot.) ...

LGBT people are as complex and varied as anybody else. They are still all too often invisible on our screens, and portrayed simplistically and problematically when they do appear. That will only change when we overcome the general prejudices in society that still exist. But that’s not an excuse. The films and TV shows of today will surely provoke bafflement in the future: “Where are all the realistic gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans people?” they will ask. It will be a good question.

The Guardian.

You can't help feeling that Owen here is expressing his own fears and loathing about gay men; of the scary bad gays, the camp queens and the sexually rapacious, 'toxic' self-caricatures he wants to disown and distance himself from.

[I think OJ's self-imposed exile from the merry old land of gay is why this highly perceptive and intelligent writer writes such pedestrian guff about The Gays].

Why does he put "being gay" in scare quotes? Does Owen think it doesn't exist? Why shouldn't a storyline centre on this?

'A character being gay is often a storyline in and of itself,' he comments, 'surely we need characters who simply happen to be gay, rather than being defined by it.'

A statement that is every bit as banal and silly as it is clichéd. 

Does anyone 'simply happen to be gay'? What would be the point of having such characters in popular culture?

Perhaps OJ does not really want 'realistic' portrayals of gay people? 

Rather he wants them - and us - to be normal and boring, joyless and sexless, indistinguishable from straights.

Just like...

PS On GLAAD's headcounting, box-ticking, stopwatch watching not very useful surveys.

PPS On Owen Jones and the demonisation of gay men.

Pride: Have You No Fucking Shame!!??

If you grew up in the US, it is pretty likely you loved eating those Lucky Charms.

It might have also occurred to you, with all those colors, shapes and rainbows, that might have been the queerest way to start your day as a kid.

And now, you’ve been proven right. The cereal, best known for its leprechaun mascot, is running a new campaign for Pride month.

They are asking fans to use the hashtag, #LuckyToBe, to express who they are and why that identity makes them lucky...

GLAAD is also promoting the campaign, with the group’s vice president of communications and programs Rich Ferraro saying he was ‘excited to see a brand like that participate in Pride month.’

He said: ‘Lucky Charms has always been known as a family brand and it's only natural that they have chosen to celebrate all families.

‘This campaign is another sign that advertising is on its way out of the closet, with companies finding that it's a smart business decision to stand with LGBT people and the majority of Americans who support our community.’

Gay Star News.

The commercial infantilisation of gay culture continues apace!

Unfortunately, everyone at GSN is too busy sucking corporate cock to take breakfast right now. 

This makes Stonewall's #firstSNOG 'campaign' look inspired and radical and in-no-way patronising and opportunistic.

Happy PR... ide!

Cause nothing sums up Pride in 2014 like a rainbow-coloured dog turd.

'How little pleasure most people need to make them find life good, how modest man is!' Nietzsche.

PS Why Lucky Charms manufacturer, General Mills, might be trying to improve its image on social media. 

GLAAD: To Have Done Near Next To Fuck All For Gay Rights

Global superstar Jennifer Lopez will be honored at the 25th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles, it was announced today. E! Online's Marc Malkin broke the news.

Lopez will receive GLAAD's Vanguard Award, which is presented to artists and media professionals who, through their work, have increased the visibility and understanding of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

This is not a joke. Repeat. This is not a joke!

Duck Dynasty: Some Crazy Old American Dude You'd Never Heard Of Before Has Said Something Crazy About The Gays And Now Thanks To Some Gays Who Claim To Speak For All Gays You'll Probably Never Have To Hear From Him Again Even Though You Hadn't In The First Place! Phew!!!

“It seems like, to me, a vagina - as a man - would be more desirable than a man’s anus. That’s just me. I’m just thinking: There’s more there! She’s got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I’m saying? But hey, sin: It’s not logical, my man. It’s just not logical.”

"Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men,” 
[Then he paraphrases Corinthians] “Don’t be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers — they won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right.”

“We never, ever judge someone on who’s going to heaven, hell. That’s the Almighty’s job.

“We just love ‘em, give ‘em the good news about Jesus - whether they’re homosexuals, drunks, terrorists. 
"We let God sort ‘em out later, you see what I’m saying?”

Phil Robertson, GQ Magazine - quoted with horror in The Advocate.

No, I'd never heard of him, either.

But apparently Phil is on something called Duck Dynasty, some godawful American reality show neither you nor I have probably ever seen.
Fagburn can't really comment on this, as he's never seen Duck Dynasty, but I guess the show's just an excuse for viewers to "laugh at the hicks".
Hahaha!
Anyway, some pink pearl-clutchers have got their St Margaret knickers in a predictable twist as Phil dared to say what he thought about the gays when he was goaded to in an interview with GQ, a posh magazine.
Holy Moly!

Here's GLAAD's predictable hysterical outrage; "Phil's decision to push vile and extreme stereotypes is a stain on A&E and his sponsors who now need to re-examine their ties to someone with such public disdain for LGBT people and families."
Won't somebody please think of the advertisers!
This was also big news for the likes of the UK's Pink Star News, natch.
Now the US TV station, A&E, has "suspended Phil Robertson indefinitely".
Just for saying this!??
I'd be fascinated to know what Phil is quoted as saying here has now been decreed unthinkable, unutterable.
Or why some people have appointed themselves as some kind of LGBT McCarthy tribunal.
It's at times like this that, when next time Fagburn hears right-wing, reactionary Christians talking about an intolerant "Gaystapo" policing public thought, he may wonder if they have a point.

Hot Dude From Prison Break: Out! (GEDDIT!!?)

Wentworth Miller, that hot dude from Prison Break, has come out as a gay man who is openly gay, Fagburn can exclusively reveal.
This is exciting as he's proper famous*.
And he's come out in protest at Russia and how it's the only country in the world where bad things happen to The Gays.
Take that, Putin!
"I cannot in good conscience participate in a celebratory occasion hosted by a country where people like myself are being systematically denied their basic right to live and love openly," commented the American star who's lived 41 years in the closet.

* As opposed to the usual American "celebrities" you've never heard of that the UK gay media pretends to be excited about.
eg this "Nickleodeon star" who came out the other day.
Sorry!!? Lucas who?!!

PS Today's lamest press release about a rubbish PR stunt masquerading as political campaigning; 'Kristof Buntinx, a Belgian fashion designer, has created a line of boxer shorts as a sartorial protest of Russia's antigay laws....' FFS!

GLAAD: The Price Of Everything And The Value Of Nothing

In its first ever study of LGBT representation on film, GLAAD finds the major studios are really slipping on their gay pimpin’. According to their Studio Responsibility Index, only 14 of the 101 releases from major studios contained lesbian, gay or bisexual characters, with nary a transgender representation in sight...

Additional findings from the study include:

- More than half of those inclusive films (55.6%) featured gay male characters, while another 33% featured lesbian characters and 11% contained bisexual characters. Male characters represented 63% of LGBT images on screen, while female characters made up just 37%

- Of the 31 different characters counted (some of whom were onscreen for no more than a few seconds), 26 were white (83.9%), four were Black/African-American (12.9%) and one was Latino (3.2%). There were no Asian-Pacific Islander or recognizably multi-racial LGBT characters counted.

- The most common place to find LGBT characters in the major studios’ 2012 releases was in comedies, where nine of the 24 comedies released (37.5%) were inclusive. By comparison, 34 genre films (action, sci-fi, fantasy, etc.) made up the majority of the 2012 releases, though only three (8.8%) of those included any LGBT characters. Additionally, only one of 21 dramas (4.7%) and one of four documentaries (25%) were inclusive, while there were no LGBT characters in any animated or family-oriented films from the ‘Big Six.’

Queerty.

Fagburn would be fascinated to learn what anyone is supposed to learn from this, or indeed from any of GLAAD's endless queer headcounting "surveys" on LGBT representation in the media.
Apart from that the well-funded group is obsessed with quantity over quality.

Weekend gif shamelessly borrowed from Queerty - if only the fillum had been that short it might have been bearable.
GLAAD review of Weekend; "Drama. Contains two white gay men - onscreen for one and a half-hours each (approx.). Lesbian, trans, Asian-Pacific-Islander, and Black/African-American characters completely absent. Rating 3/10."

Gay Media: Publisher's Own Magazine Makes Him Puke

Few things reflect how shallow national LGBT organizations can be other than the revelation that the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation is going to coronate Adam Lambert with a national media award in San Francisco next month.

When my business partner and I started the South Florida Gay News four years ago, we promised each other we were going to publish a newspaper that focused on illuminating the lives and dimensions of America’s emerging LGBT community.
 
We were unified in mind and spirit that there were local and national newsmakers working towards LGBT equality, fighting for your rights, and standing up for all of us, who you would want to read about.

Neither of us thinks Adam Lambert is such a person. Good, he can sing. Good, he became a national star on American Idol. As obvious as it was that he was gay, he also remained in the closet during his meteoric rise to stardom while on the TV show.

Now that he is open and out, everyone wants to play off his celebrity. Fresh off being crowned the Queen of Gay Pride in Miami Beach, he is now headed to Pittsburgh in June to play the Grand Madame in their parade.

He is a rising young gay star whose career is just beginning, and maybe someday he will take his fame and fortune and advance the cause of LGBT equality. But he has not yet done so.

Therefore, seeing him on the cover of our newspaper a few weeks ago made my partner and me puke. In fact, for all intents and purposes, consider Pier Guidugli the co-author of this column. We are 100 percent on the same page about this issue.

As I have been on leave, the staff has been running the show. You hire good people and you trust them to do the job. My business partner trusts me to make sure we get the job done. Both of us went ballistic that Lambert was on our cover. Other than feature new makeup every day, what has this kid done to warrant a cover story?

While Pier and I were fuming over the cover in the evening, our Associate Publisher, Jason Parsley, was setting up an exclusive follow up interview with Lambert for the next morning. During the interview, Lambert revealed to Parsley that he had recently broken up with his boyfriend. Parsley is the first to get the story.

Sensing the newsworthiness of this shocking revelation, Parsley goes online with it immediately.
Thanks to Adam Lambert and Jason Parsley, our SFGN website crashed. Why? Because after Parsley’s story on Lambert’s boy breakup went online at SFGN.com, it was picked up first by Lambert’s groupies and within hours a slew of entertainment and gossip sites had picked up the story and linked back to us. Our servers could not handle the traffic.

Because Adam Lambert has become a national obsession, the story went viral, from coast to coast and into Europe. It may as well have gone galactic. My business partner and I were blown away.
Four years of publishing the Express Gay News, and four years into South Florida Gay News, and the story that takes down our website is Adam Lambert’s breakup with his boyfriend? This is unreal. How shallow have we become?

The award that Lambert is getting from GLAAD is its highest honor. It’s presented to “an openly LGBT media professional who has made a significant difference in promoting gay rights.”
Give me a break. This award is presented to whoever can fill the seats and make money for GLAAD at its annual fundraising dinner.

“Adam Lambert’s continued success as one of the world’s best-selling pop stars shows LGBT people that they can be themselves and make it in a mainstream industry that many feel unfairly rejects them,” GLAAD spokesman Wilson Cruz said in a statement.

Save it, please. Struggling to find anything that Lambert has ever done for gay rights, the group noted that he spoke out for a referendum in Maryland last year upholding a gay marriage law. Oh, he also wore a purple shirt on Spirit Day last year.

Adam Lambert has become an openly gay world-class performer and is a remarkably talented singer and songwriter. In truth, there is really no legitimate reason he should not be on our cover. We have featured entertainers before, and he was the grand marshal of Miami Beach pride. There was a local angle to feature him in South Florida.

Still, folks, let’s marshal our senses. Adam Lambert may be a Grammy nominee, a Billboard 200 artist, and he may sleep with other men, but he has not made a career promoting gay rights. He has made a career promoting himself, his music, and his albums.

GLAAD is sucking off that publicity and fame to line their own pockets, instead of choosing someone worthy of that award. GLAAD needs to get its priorities straight. Stop awarding celebrities and acknowledge the unheralded champions of justice that fight the good fight for LGBT justice everyday. There are many out there.

Meanwhile, thanks Adam. Because of you our website got more hits and a spike we had never received anything like ever before. Break up more often, and when you do give Mr. Parsley a call.

A publisher's editorial by Norm Kane in South Florida Gay News.

Brilliant and hilarious.
A rare moment of candour like this is surely worth printing in full?
Let's hope this isn't all a publicity stunt by Norm "Citizen" Kane.
Though if it was, it worked.

 

PS See also the recent hoo-ha over GLAAD giving Bill Clinton an award. 

Gay Media: Cause No News Is No News

Even when nothing very interesting or particularly important has happened, the gay media - like all media - still has spaces to fill.
That's what a lot of journalism has come to these days - filing stories, filling spaces - churnalism.
It is the economy of the mass media to try and turn a small story into a big one - dog bites man is not news, Kate Middleton rabies scare as dog bites man a bit near pregnant pretty princess's house is - and hope we believe the hype, hysteria, spin and/or lies.
So let's have a quick look at two top stories in the world of gay today...

1. A Famous Person Has Said Something Bad About The Gays.
Cause if there's one thing the gay media like it's celebrity gossip, and if there's one thing it doesn't like it's homophobia.
BOO!!! Down with this sort of thing! etc etc.
Jeremy Irons has made some somewhat garbled and rambling statements about gay marriage.
That's right, a famous person has offered the world a silly, ill-informed and quarter-baked opinion about something - imagine!
A posh overgrown public school boy talks absolute bollocks with absolute confidence - well, that's a first!
Although Irons did tell Huffington Post at the end of the interview he was worried this could "debase" marriage - and made some bizarro not-thinking aloud comments about inheritance tax ("Could a father not marry his son?" Err, no) - he said he wasn't bothered either way.
But why not make out that he compared marriage equality to incest and bestiality?
Even though he didn't.
Though that wouldn't be much of a story, would it? 

2. A Famous Person Has A Gay Son - And He's Fine With That!

Cause if there's one thing the gay media loves more than celebrity gossip, it's sentimental shmaltz about gay kids coming out.
So brave! etc etc. 
Sporting legend Magic Johnson has a gay son, and he thinks it's a-okay that he's A Big Ole Gay!
(Who knew??? etc etc >>>)
Err, that's about it, really.
WOW!
Even though it's 2013 and parents completely accepting and embracing their gay kids is about as remarkable as rain, make out this is the greatest story EVER.
MAGIC-al, even.

Although the links above are to stories from the front page of Queerty today, they both appeared everywhere else in gaymedialand, too.
For the record, Fagburn thinks Queerty is the least worst gay web newsite thing by far.
Oh, and for another record, Fagburn likes reading celebrity gossip as much as the next gay dude. 

Update: Just to show Queerty can be spot-on, they ran a story later today with this simply-stated headline; GLAAD To Honor Bill Clinton Despite Not Apologizing For Using DOMA To Win Re-Election

When it comes to political expediency, no one can beat Bill Clinton. When it comes to apologizing for misdeeds, no one can find Bill Clinton. The man who gave us both Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and DOMA is being honored by GLAAD with its Advocate for Change Award. The change in this case apparently refers to Clinton’s recent shift on DOMA in a Washington Post op-ed, that was most noticeable for his inability to say he was sorry for what he did.
Worse still, in the Clinton tradition of selective memory, Bill neglected to mention that he not only signed the bill, but he ran ads promoting his signature in the 1996 presidential campaign. So when you read stories about how Clinton agonized about signing DOMA into law, don’t forget that — agonized or not — he capitalized on his signature at our expense. 

You may want to compare how Queerty have framed this with how, for example, the politically braindead Gay Star News reported it.
And you might want to compare that in turn with GLAAD's press release.
Gay Star Churnalism FUCK YEAH!

Gay TV: Normal-ish

Did TV Change America's Mind On Gay Marriage?

From “Soap” to Ellen DeGeneres to Richard Hatch on “Survivor” to the macho male couple who won season 4 of “The Amazing Race,” televisual images of sexual diversity have gradually moved away from victimology and “gay best friend” stereotypes toward a “normalizing vision” of LGBT culture. This simultaneously reflected the lived experience of many or most Americans and also projected the mainstream and middlebrow sensibility of television onto the whole society. As GLAAD’s annual reports on television make clear, LGBT characters on dramas and sitcoms are overwhelmingly white, wholesome gay men and lesbians, rather than, say, transgender HIV-positive youth of color. If Christian conservatives who once complained vociferously about every gay-positive show have been virtually driven out of the TV conversation, so too has the much smaller population of “queer radicals” who advocate a separate and distinctive LGBT culture. While the startling public shift on gay marriage – something few people of my generation, straight or gay, thought they’d ever see — is not solely the product of TV, it represents the ultimate fulfillment of TV’s vision of sexual equality. Harvey Milk may have had a much broader vision of social change in view, but gay marriage is exactly the revolution [Soap's gay character - above] Jodie Dallas wanted.

An interesting overview of US TV by Andrew O'Hehir on Salon.com
Popular culture's role in changing attitudes to The Gays has become a popular subject for the US media of late, partly one suspects as it seems to agitate their Christian Right so much.
But O'Hehir doesn't indulge in the usual simplistic cheerleading, complaining about "stereotypes" (which usually seems to mean wanting to to see gay men who are completely indistinguishable from straight men), or pleas for "positive images".
While writing that he has no doubt "TV has played a crucial role", he makes clear that;

"I have no doubt that the biggest single factor that has driven social change on this issue is that almost all the straight people in America have gotten to know someone gay over the last 20 or 30 years, and have not found them fundamentally alien. Whatever biblical disapproval or personal distaste for homosexuality you may feel, your spouse’s gay nephew or the lesbian in Accounting probably strikes you as a normal-ish person, not inherently more obnoxious than others."

GLAAD: Just GLAAD Now

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Spirit Day: Wear Purple!

Spirit Day is an annual day in October when millions [sic] of Americans wear purple to speak out against bullying and to show their support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth.

From GLAAD's website.
Their mission here is ended - the banalification of gay politics and its subsumation into silly, pointless self-serving PR gestures is now complete.
And remember: Only sentimental old tosh like this can truly set you free.

GLAAD: TVODear

GLAAD released its sixth annual Network Responsibility Index (NRI), a report that maps the quantity, quality and diversity of images of LGBT people on [US] primetime broadcast and cable TV.
The number of LGBT images has stabilized this year as the range of impressions continues to grow. With 69% of LGBT impressions on broadcast networks made by gay men and 66% of LGBT-inclusive broadcast hours showcasing white people, the Network Responsibility Index also calls for networks to highlight the great ethnic and cultural diversity of the LGBT community.
“Americans expect to see their off-screen worlds represented onscreen and today more than ever that includes LGBT people and families,” said GLAAD President Herndon Graddick. “Storylines of families like Mitchell and Cameron on Modern Family and young people like Emily on Pretty Little Liars are not only growing acceptance of our community, but have found praise from viewers and critics alike at a time when visibility and acceptance of LGBT people is at an all-time high...”

GLAAD's somewhat random annual report.
Trying to think how you'd place UK channels, but, as regular viewers will know, I don't own a tellybox, so I'm the last person to ask, really.

Work It: A Joke

A lot of people in the US are getting very worked up about Work It, a new "comedy" series - due to air from January 3rd - about two unemployed straight dudes who dress as women in an attempt to get jobs.
GLAAD and Human Rights Camapign have taken out a full-page ad in Variety telling ABC not to air the show; "Work It will harm transgender women... deserve better than ridicule".
"By encouraging the audience to laugh at at the characters' attempts at womanhood, the show gives license to similar treatment."
Fagburn has pointed out many times how trans people now occupy much the same cultural space as gay men once did; people who can only be laughed at or feared.
The campaign is complicated somewhat by the fact the lead characters aren't actually transgender - but I don't think this detracts from what seems to be Work It's snide message "Men in dresses = funny".

• More on GLAAD's campaign here.

Amplifier Awards: It Gets Better (UK)

GLAAD has announced the winners of its Amplifier Awards 2011 for "advertising that is inclusive of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community".
The winner for outstanding TV campaign aimed at the mainstream market is the Google Chrome It Gets Better ad - the above version is a UK version that was slightly tweeked.
See if you can spot all the differences!
But don't write in - it's just for fun.
You can watch some other winners here.

US TV Networks: Still Making Us Mad As Hell?

GLAAD Network Responsibility Index 2010 - 2011
Blurb! "The fifth annual GLAAD Network Responsibility Index is an evaluation of the quantity, quality and diversity of images of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people on television. It is intended to serve as a road map toward increasing fair, accurate and inclusive LGBT media representations.
"Primetime programming on the five broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, The CW, Fox and NBC) was evaluated as well as 10 highly-rated cable networks (A&E, ABC Family, AMC, FX, HBO, Showtime, Syfy, TBS, TNT and USA). Based on the analysis, a grade was assigned to each network: Excellent, Good, Adequate, or Failing..."

In fine: Most "gay" representation on the American tellybox is of white gay men.
There aren't many lesbians, bisexuals or people of colour.
Trans people are almost invisible - 1% of all LGBT representation.
The bestest cable network is ABC Family - whatever that it is.
Oh, apparently it's a Disney (owned) channel, and they show teen shows like GREEK and Huge.
No. Me neither.
Big sister channel ABC make Ugly Betty, Modern Family and Desperate Housewives - they are "Good".
The CW (WTF?) was the best broadcast (terrestial) channel.
These ratings can be a wonky; CW scored extremely highly for gay man hours on TV, but "51 of the CW's 55 hours of LGBT content came from... America's Next Top Model".
GLAAD think "True Blood [is] the most inclusive show on television".
It's on HBO - HBO is rated merely "Good", which surprised me.
And at last there's some good news for Rupert Murdoch, Fox was rated the second best broadcast network.
GLAAD love teh Glee.

Read the report here.