Also, we’d prefer to not die (at least not all the time). We need characters who have insights, feelings, problems, and triumphs that aren’t exclusively related to their sexuality or gender. But queer people don’t simply want queer characters to exist. Many queer characters have been killed off too- 225 over the past 45 years of TV, by one tally, and that’s just lesbians and bisexuals. Often, their arcs were confined to storylines that defined their queerness but little else-it was rare to see a character break out of the realms of sex and love, coming out, internalized homophobia, trauma, or violence. The first gay characters appeared on prime-time TV in 1967, in the pilot episode of N.Y.P.D.* Queer characters remained sparse for decades after and were typically trope-y and one-dimensional. For most of recent history, stretching the limits of pop culture was the only way for queer people to feel as if they were reflected in it at all. Even The Sopranos, perhaps the only show straighter than FNL, has been declared queer. Midsommar has a secret trans narrative, Taylor Swift is Gaylor Swift, known heterosexual Laura Dern is “a gay,” and these two straight characters from Euphoria are totally into each other. I realize LGBTQ people have been “queering” just about everything lately, especially media.
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