In its ninth annual report on Hollywood
films, GLAAD found zero transgender characters for the fourth year in
a row.
“For the fourth year in a row, there
were zero transgender and/or non-binary characters counted in the
major studio films released,” GLAAD said in a statement announcing
the release of its Studio Responsibility Index for 2021.
“[T]his remains one of the more
glaring ways mainstream studios continue to lag behind other forms of
entertainment media,” the LGBT rights organization said.
GLAAD also found “a complete absence”
of storylines about LGBT characters living with HIV in any of the
released films.
While the coronavirus pandemic limited
the number of films released theatrically in 2020, GLAAD counted 44
movies from major studios released in 2020. Ten (22.7%) of these
films included LGBT characters (11 women, 9 men), including Like a
Boss, The Broken Hearts Gallery, Fantasy Island,
Valley Girl, Freaky, The New Mutants, and Birds
of Prey.
“This is a critical time of
transformation for Hollywood – challenged to redefine business
lines and practices during a global pandemic, driven by an increased
demand from consumers hungry for new content, and rocked by the
rightful reckoning and pressure for these studios to create more
meaningful substantive change in representing and investing in
marginalized communities,” said GLAAD President & CEO Sarah
Kate Ellis. “This transformation represents a great opportunity to
swiftly accelerate acceptance of LGBTQ stories, break new ground, and
invest in queer and trans talent and stories that audiences are eager
to watch. Hollywood and the business of storytelling must be more
nimble, more creative, more open than ever before.”
GLAAD added that it saw “a welcome
increase” in the racial diversity of LGBT characters, with 8
characters (40 percent) of color, an increase of six percent from
2019.
Screen time for LGBT characters also
increased significantly, GLAAD said.