Yahoo News Film Studios Get Bad Grades In GLAAD’s Latest LGBTQ Inclusivity Report, But “Significant Progress” Made In Past Decade
Hollywood’s seven major film studios all received bad grades in GLAAD’s latest report card on LGBTQ inclusivity.
The group’s 10th annual Studio Responsibility Index report (read it here) found that the percentage of LGBTQ-inclusive films released by the major distributors decreased in 2021 from 2020, as did the percentage of LGBTQ women and characters of color and the screen time they were allotted. None of the studios received a “good” or “excellent” grade.
More from Deadline
Related Story
Joe Biden Signs Historic Marriage Equality Bill; White House Celebrates With Cyndi Lauper, Sam Smith And ‘Born This Way’
Related Story
IMDb Allows Industry Professionals To Remove Birthdates & Birth Names From Its Site In Major Win For SAG-AFTRA & GLAAD
Related Story
JoJo Siwa Calls Out Candace Cameron Bure For "Excluding LGBTQIA+" & Receives Support From 'Fuller House' Star Jodie Sweetin; GLAAD Issues Statement
Paramount and Lionsgate received “failing” grades for not containing a single identifiably LGBTQ character in any of the films they released in 2021. Warner Bros. received the second-lowest grade of “poor,” while Disney, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures and United Artists Releasing each received a grade of “insufficient.”
Even so, there has been “significant progress” over the past decade, as GLAAD CEO & President Sarah Kate Ellis wrote in her introduction to the report, noting that “the percentage of LGBTQ-inclusive films has grown by 50%” during the past 10 years “as GLAAD has set industry priorities and best practices.”
“At a time when the LGBTQ community is under unprecedented attacks, it is more important than ever to hold studios and corporations accountable,” Ellis said in a statement. “LGBTQ people deserve to have positive representation reflected in cinemas around the world, and to know that the people and companies who make and market LGBTQ-inclusive films unequivocally stand up for LGBTQ folks.”
In the past 10 years, she noted in the report, “We have seen significant progress in mainstream film’s inclusivity, propelled forward by the data and insights of our SRI studies and ongoing partnerships with top studios and creatives. GLAAD has worked to ensure Hollywood is creating and promoting inclusive storytelling while eliminating harmful depictions.”
The report analyzed U.S. theatrically released films from the seven major distributors that had the highest theatrical grosses in 2021. A total of 77 films were examined, of which 16 (20.8%) were LGBTQ-inclusive.
Despite their grades of “insufficient,” Disney, Universal Pictures and United Artists Releasing far exceeded a goal set four years ago by GLAAD when it challenged the studios to include identifiably LGBTQ characters in at least 20% of their films.
“Though the overall percentage did slightly decrease year-over-year as more total films were released, the challenge was once again met for 2021 films,” the report says, noting that “three individual studios also achieved and surpassed that goal this year: Universal Pictures with 30%, Walt Disney with 42%, and United Artists Releasing leading the pack with 44% of their slate being inclusive.”
GLAAD’s grading system, however, is not just based on the percentage of studio films that are LGBTQ-inclusive but on a wide range of other issues, including the quality of and diversity of a film’s LGBTQ characters, their story arcs and, for the first time, on the “corporate actions” of the studios and their parent companies.
A consideration of corporate actions in the grading of the studios was included this time, Ellis wrote, because “as the LGBTQ community is currently under dangerous legislative attack, with more than 250 anti-LGBTQ bills proposed in 2022 and a number of those bills passing and being implemented in more than a dozen states across the country, it is more necessary than ever that our allies in Hollywood stand beside us, telling inclusive stories and furthering LGBTQ acceptance.
“This real-world damage and erosion of our rights in recent years is why GLAAD this year announced an expansion to our SRI. GLAAD now includes an evaluation of each studio and their parent company’s overall annual efforts on behalf of the community and factors these findings into the studio’s grades, alongside the inclusion in their film slates. These efforts can include political giving, public statements made by company leadership, actions taken to support LGBTQ-inclusive films, and more.”
Because of real-world attacks, murders and discrimination, Ellis wrote, “We know that telling LGBTQ stories is crucial for our survival.”
According to the report, examples of corporate actions that are now taken into account include “statements by businesses and/or creative leadership on public platforms, ceasing business contracts and/or real estate development in areas proposing and/or passing anti-LGBTQ legislation, donations to LGBTQ organizations and associated events, investing in diversity programs to foster and incubate new LGBTQ talent, marketing LGBTQ-inclusive titles at a comparable level to non-inclusive titles, and supporting LGBTQ characters and stories in international markets including speaking out against anti-LGBTQ alterations or censorship of titles and willingness to withhold release, among other actions considered.”
With regards to corporate actions, several of the studios received glowing reports based on the 2022 Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index. Studios that received top scores of 100 on that index included Disney, Sony Pictures Entertainment and parent company Sony Corporation of America; Comcast NBCUniversal; Paramount parent company ViacomCBS; former WarnerMedia parent company AT&T; and Lionsgate, which moved select productions out of North Carolina in 2016 in response to discriminatory legislation there that targeted transgender people.
Disney, for instance, received its top rating, the report notes, “by offering employee benefits that are inclusive of same-sex partners and cover transgender health care, workplace safety policies inclusive of orientation and gender identity, an active LGBTQ employee resource group, and other overall ‘Efforts of Outreach or Engagement to the Broader LGBTQ Community.’ In 2021, the company released an evergreen line of merchandise in recognition of Pride Month with funds benefiting LGBTQ organizations globally and launched the first Disney+ Pride celebration special. The company also has a supplier diversity program for vendors and supports policies for more diverse gender expression for employees.
“In 2021, Disney was a financial supporter of several LGBTQ organizations, including GLAAD, and events including the 32nd GLAAD Media Awards which streamed on Hulu.
“In 2020, The Walt Disney Company joined over 250 other businesses that signed onto HRC’s and Freedom for All Americans’ Business Statement Opposing Anti-LGBTQ State Legislation. They joined the coalition of Businesses in favor of passing the Equality Act.
“In 2021, Disney and Pixar made the queer Pixar short Out free to watch on YouTube after its Disney+ launch. That same year, Marvel Studios released the film Eternals and did not make cuts that would have lessened or censored the story of Phastos and his husband. The film was subsequently banned in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar. In Indonesia, the film was released with all love scenes, both between the gay couple and the film’s straight couples, cut out.
“Additional content with LGBTQ+ stories were released by the studio that year. As more films begin to include LGBTQ characters with substantial stories, we hope to see more studios standing bravely behind their storytelling and creatives, even if it may potentially mean a loss of profits in some places.”
The report noted, however, that Disney “donated more than $25,000 to anti-LGBTQ politicians,” though that was but a tiny fraction of its political donations. “In 2021, no anti-LGBTQ political donations were found from The Walt Disney Studios,” the report says.
Comcast NBCUniversal, meanwhile, also “received a top score of 100 in the 2022 Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index with points awarded for inclusive benefits, employee safety policies that specify coverage for sexual orientation and gender identity, an active LGBTQ employee resource group, and more,” the report says.
“NBCUniversal runs NBC Out, one of the only LGBTQ-focused verticals from a major media company. The company signed on to a Business Coalition of companies who supported passing the Equality Act and issued a public statement praising a Supreme Court decision in 2020 which ruled that workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity violates the Civil Rights Act.
“In 2020, Comcast NBCUniversal joined over 250 other businesses that signed onto HRC’s and Freedom For All American’s Business Statement Opposing Anti-LGBTQ State Legislation. The company also has introduced a supplier diversity program to evaluate the vendors they employ.
“In 2021, Comcast NBCUniversal was a financial supporter of LGBTQ groups and events, including GLAAD. No anti-LGBTQ political donations were found from Universal Pictures. Parent company Comcast/NBCUniversal donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to anti- LGBTQ politicians.”
The GLAAD report card also bases the grades it gives out on the Vito Russo Test on LGBTQ representation, which is named after the film historian and GLAAD co-founder whose book The Celluloid Closet remains a cornerstone for the analysis of early LGBTQ portrayals in Hollywood.
For a film to pass that test, GLAAD says it must depict a character who is identifiably lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or queer; LGBTQ characters must not be solely or predominantly defined by their sexual orientation or gender identity, and they must be “tied into the plot in such a way that their removal would have a significant effect, meaning they are not there to simply provide colorful commentary, paint urban authenticity, or perhaps most commonly, set up a punchline. The character must matter.”
To pass the test, an LGBTQ character’s story must also “not be outwardly offensive” and avoids “defaulting to well-known tropes or stereotypes with no further development,” the report says. “In films with multiple LGBTQ characters, at least one character must pass this point for the film to pass the test.”
And that’s where many of the studio releases in 2021 largely came up short, although 56% (9 of 16) of the films surveyed that featured LGBTQ characters passed the Vito Russo Test, including all three LGBTQ-inclusive films released by Universal, which only received a grade of “insufficient.”
Other notable overall shortcomings, GLAAD noted, include:
The lack of meaningful screen time for LGBTQ characters in releases from the major studio distributors. The report found a noted decrease in screen time for LGBTQ characters in 2021, with only seven out of 28 (25%) characters clocking over 10 minutes of screen time. Four additional characters (14%) had between five and ten minutes on screen, while 17 (60%) had under five minutes on screen. Of those, six characters (21%) were under one minute.
There was a slight decrease in the percentage of characters of color, down to 39% percent from last years’ 40%. Once again, this was short of GLAAD’s challenge to reach 50% characters of color. Of the 28 LGBTQ characters counted, 11 were characters of color and 17 were white.
There were zero characters represented who had a disability and no characters living with HIV. “This is a significant part of the LGBTQ population that is rarely seen on screen and an area we’d like to see improvement from both film and TV,” the report says.
Major studio films continue “to fall behind representing reality as only two films (2.6% of all films) included bisexual characters in 2021. In reality, bisexual people represent the majority of the LGBTQ community at just over 50%.”
The report also found a transgender character in a major studio release for the first time in five years, though that film – Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story for Disney – did not pass the Vito Russo Test.
“In the original musical and film adaptation of West Side Story, the character of Anybodys is a girl who is trying to join the gang The Jets,” the report states in its rationale for not giving it a passing grade. “However, in the 2021 version, this character is portrayed as a transgender man, who spends the majority of the film reminding the Jets he is a boy as they constantly misgender him. It’s exciting to see a trans character in a high-budget release from a major studio which received significant critical attention, given that trans characters have been invisible from this report in the past five years. However, this is merely a first step; it would have been wonderful to see Anybodys as a fully fleshed-out character beyond just his gender identity, and to see more trans characters have life and scope beyond just who they are as trans individuals. Additionally, more trans characters deserve to have their gender affirmed, and not mocked and disregarded by the other characters in the film.”
Free Guy, another Disney release, failed the Vito Russo Test because its positive portrayal of a budding lesbian relationship was too brief and too subtle for many viewers to catch. The report explained the failing grade this way:
“Free Guy aptly follows Guy, a non-playable character (NPC) in a video game who develops his own thoughts and free will. Over the course of the film, other NPCs join Guy in thinking for themselves. A barista who makes the same drink every day begins making her own espresso drinks, and a ‘bombshell’ character who has been the arm candy of criminal men states ‘maybe I don’t have to be with any guy.’ At first it was unclear if that was a throwaway line or if the character truly didn’t want to be with men anymore, but later on in the film, she tells the barista that she’s amazing, and later the two are seen holding hands and embracing. At the very end, the barista’s arm is around the bombshell, indicating that they are a couple. Even though the pair ending up together was a fun detail, it was so small that it could be literally categorized as ‘blink-and-you’ll-miss-it’ representation. It would have been easy to add a kiss between the characters, or a verbal confirmation of their relationship. Instead, it is a detail most viewers likely missed.”
Other films that failed the Vito Russo Test include Disney’s Cruella, The Last Duel, and The King’s Man; Sony Pictures’ Escape Room: Tournament of Champions, A Journal for Jordan, Peter Rabbit 2: The Runway, and Venom: Let There Be Carnage; United Artists Releasing’s House of Gucci and Respect; Warner Bros.’ The Matrix Resurrections, Reminiscence, and The Suicide Squad, and Lionsgate’s Chaos Walking.
Films that passed the Vito Russo Test include Walt Disney Studios’ Eternals and Jungle Cruise; Sony Pictures’ Our Ladies; United Artists Releasing’s Licorice Pizza and No Time to Die; Universal Pictures’ Candyman, Dear Evan Hansen and Halloween Kills; and Warner Bros.’ In the Heights.
Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
