Am I the only person who thinks that TV shows don't have enough LGBT representation?

recently my mother said to me “my, there sure are a lot of gay characters on tv these days!” She only watches tv shows when i’m around (she doesn’t know how to navigate netflix and our national tv doesn’t have a lot of stuff to offer) and i only show her ones that have good lgbt representation..... so now she thinks the entire world is like that.....

but sadly it definitely is not. if you go looking for them you can definitely find them, and tv is definitely doing better than film in terms of representation, but esp expensive, popular, mainstream shows are lacking in this aspect... but if you want to live in the world the way my mum thinks she lives, here’s some good shows to check out (shows with an * are still running today and getting new seasons). all of these are positive representations, no extremely stereotypical ones and no bury your gays!
- one day at a time* (family sitcom with a daughter who comes out as lesbian, best coming out plotline i’ve ever seen! second season also features a non binary character)
- black lightning* (superhero show with one of the main characters being a black lesbian superhero)
- crazy ex girlfriend* (musical comedy, features bi and gay men. i’m not actually a huge fan of the faux feminism of the show but there is a great song in it about a guy discovering he is bi.... )
- the fosters* (dramedy about lesbian couple who are foster moms)
- sense8 (sci fi show with LOTS of lgbt representation, including a gay man and trans lesbian)
- jane the virgin* (4th season features bi man, 5th season has one of the important female characters fall in love with a woman!)
- wynonna earp* (fantasy drama, one of the main characters is a lesbian and her relationship is amazing... it feature a scene in direct reference to the “bury your gays” trope to show they’re not doing that crap!)
- brooklyn nine-nine* (gay black man present from first season onwards + a latina character who comes out as bi in the fifth season. her coming out episode uses the word bisexual so much it makes
up for bisexual erasure everywhere else! (kidding, of course, but it is amazing how often they said it considering no one ever actually calls bi character bisexual on screen...))
- grace & frankie* (dramedy, elderly gay couple. they start out as being semi- antagonists because them coming out causes their marriages to end and forces their wives who hate each other (the main characters) to live together but later on goes on to explore what it’s like to come out much later in life and finally get to be your true self
- queer eye* (a reality/makeover show where 5 gay men give someone a makeover. the premise sounds a bit risky, it could’ve gone very wrong and become very stereotypical but it is actually the most genuine, positive show out there, it addresses very serious issues (i.e. coming out, racism, police violence) without ever getting heavy or judgemental. would HIGHLY recommend this!)
- humans* (i haven’t actually seen the american version, only the swedish original, but the original was good and the remake apparently dives much deeper into a lesbian relationship that’s present. it’s a sci fi show about the near future in which people can buy human-like robots, and these human-like robots gain human-like awareness)

these are just the ones i can think of right now lgbt people are definitely underrepresented but one of the best ways for us to change that is by supporting the shows that DO include these representations (preferably in legal ways because then it really matters - most of the shows i listed above are (at least partially) available on netflix worldwide)

 

Most TVs I watch is fantasy/sci-fi and those tend to be better at LGBT representations. I'm not even purposely looking for them so it's feel like I'm seeing them every where lol.

 

There's usually a token gay character in a programme (usually male as there are very few females I can think of) and they're killed off after a while.

 

I think it's so funny how different people's perspectives are so different on this. Like I said, I think we're pretty much everywhere on TV. I've been watching Grey's Anatomy on Netflix and have been a little bit taken aback at how everyone's a lesbian and I never even heard anything about it--and it wasn't exactly a fringe program. Pretty much everything we watch has at least one gay plot line, which is to my way of thinking is pretty much more representative than we actually are in the population. My husband and I have a running joke. We watch a lot of British television and even in the older stuff, there's always a gay person--it's a little weird actually. Anyway, I guess more is always more...

 

There's some but not enough. Glee tried everything and it was okay while it lasted.