GLAAD’s 2023 Studio Responsibility Index Reports Increase in LGBTQ Characters of Color

GLAAD launched the twelfth installment of its Studio Accountability Index, a research that tracks the “amount, high quality and variety” of LGBTQ characters in movies launched in a calendar 12 months by 10 Hollywood distributors. The report discovered that a lot of the firms acquired low grades and total illustration ticked down simply barely.

To compile the info, GLAAD investigated 256 movies launched in 2023 by A24, Amazon, Apple TV+, Lionsgate, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount World, Sony Footage Leisure, the Walt Disney Firm and Warner Bros. Discovery (together with subsidiary distribution labels and streaming providers). The group discovered 70 movies out of 256 contained an LGBTQ character (or 27.3 p.c), a lower from final 12 months’s report excessive of 100 out of 350 movies (or 28.5 p.c). The 70 movies featured a complete of 170 LGBTQ characters, a lower of 122 from final 12 months, and of these 170, 78 represented characters of coloration, a rise of 6 p.c.

The report referred to as it “a welcome uptick” and cited such movies as Rustin, The Blackening, The Coloration Purple, Shortcomings, Pleasure Journey, The Persian Model, Cassandro and extra for being liable for the brand new knowledge. On the flip aspect, GLAAD famous that there have been zero Indigenous LGBTQ characters in 2023, “an space of illustration the place Hollywood has traditionally failed.” The Lily Gladstone-starrer Fancy Dance, from Apple TV+, is due for launch in 2024 although GLAAD mentioned “one movie is just not sufficient.”

GLAAD tallied two transgender characters out of these 170, hailing from movies Subsequent Aim Wins and ¡Que Viva Mexico!, down from 13 characters in 2023. Nonetheless, the media watchdog group identified in its report that the latter movie featured a trans character performed by a cisgender man, which GLAAD famous can reinforce false narratives that transwomen are “merely males in attire.”

Additionally in its new report, GLAAD distributes total rankings to the businesses as a method to analyze how these LGBTQ characters are represented. Almost all of the distributors acquired failing, inadequate or poor grades, together with A24, Apple TV+, Lionsgate, Paramount, Sony and Disney. The one one to obtain a ranking of excellent was Amazon.

“Although there may be inconsistent progress on LGBTQ illustration from main distributors 12 months to 12 months, current movies with LGBTQ leads show that our tales can completely be each essential and industrial successes — after they have the total assist of the studio behind them,” defined GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis.

The report comes on the heels of an investigation by The New York Instances about Ellis and her questionable spending because the long-serving head of the group. “I take my position as GLAAD’s monetary steward extremely significantly, and we’ll proceed updating our procedures to maintain tempo with the group’s speedy development,” Ellis mentioned in an announcement in response. The story cited sources who claimed that her spending was extra aligned with what is taken into account commonplace at for-profit firms moderately than a nonprofit group and that a number of the receipts could possibly be in violation of IRS guidelines.

9:15 a.m., Tuesday, Sept. 17: Up to date to right the rise of characters of coloration to six p.c.