The Television Industry is 94.9% represented by Heterosexuals… What about the rest of the spectrum.

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The television industry lacks sexual diversity. Heterosexuals represent almost 94% of actors and actress leaving only five percent of the spectrum represented on TV. LGBTQ + includes gay males, Lesbians, Bisexual Males and Bisexual females. This lack of representation is due to a few things, one the lack of legal gay marriage which was not legalized until 2016. The other issue is some individuals unwelcoming towards the idea of non-heterosexuals being represented on prime time Television. Show’s such as the Ellen Show, a reality TV show featuring Ellen Degenerous who runs a comedy talk show with an opening monologue, she also interviews popular guest such as reality TV stars, Next biggest hit, trending you tube sensationalist and much more. Her fun variant personality has welcomed many into being gay, as she subtly mention her relationship with her wife during the show.

LGTBQ individuals experience not only a lack of representation of characters, but also a lack of screening hours compared to heterosexual characters. Many shows are “welcoming the idea to a gay character “. For example on the hit ABC Family television series Pretty Little Liars they welcome a gay character Emily who is interested in women, however compared to her fellow co-stars her relationship with partners are screened less compared to straight character relationship such as The “Spooby” romance between Spencer, and Toby, or the relationship between Aria, and Ezra, Or Hannah and Caleb.

The current breakdown of sexual demographics in television leads Heterosexuals at 94.4%, Gay males at 3.4%, Lesbians at 0.6%, Bisexual Females at 0.6%, and Bisexual males at 0.2%. Overall there is significant gap between sexual representation in the television industry. With the legalization of gay marriage, and the increase in openly gay individual the television industry needs to fix the gap among individuals. How long will it take until the gap related to sexual representation is closed?