Originally posted 4.26.23

I remember the first gay couple I saw on the small screen, Ben and Derek from season two of “Parks and Recreation.” They played out every stereotype of the time. They were rude, judgmental, sexist and overtly work-adverse. Sure, they were being shoved into a blasé box because of the nature of the character they were interacting with. Still, being the first primetime example of the LGBTQ+ I’d seen, it set a tone and likely regressed my own journey. They weren’t liked, and they set a horrid example for me, as I was just sorting out what being gay even meant.

Growing up in a small town, media like primetime TV and social outlets like YouTube were where I saw representation of myself. It wasn’t until the mid 2010s that I started to see healthy, queer relationships in mainstream media, even if it was few and far between.

As time crept on, we were seemingly gaining positive ground, but according to the numbers this year, that’s not the case.

The 2023 “Where We Are on TV” report from GLAAD, the LGBTQ+ media advocacy organization, found that an alarming number of LGBTQ+ inclusive programming and characters have or will exit our TVs from cable, broadcast and streaming this year. 54 inclusive programs have faced the chopping block for the fall 2022 to spring 2023 TV season, causing an astounding 140 LGBTQ+ characters to exit TV. That’s just shy of 25% of the overall LGBTQ+ representation on TV. 52% of the LGBTQ+ characters lost were women, and 56% of them are non-white.