Queer People Argumentative Essay

Quality of the depictions of LGBTQ+ people in media, having an effect on both the queer community as well as people outside of the community, must be representative of actual queer people's lives and must be made to show the importance of their lives. Some people believe that, regardless of how queer people are represented in the media, having visibility allows for progression towards acceptance. However, there are negative impacts of having queer characters on television that can advance the belief of queer people, particularly women, being insignificant. GLAAD, an organization that works towards acceptance of queer people through representation in media, released a report in November of 2016, reported that at least 12 queer female characters

Having only 4.8% of characters being queer (Harris) already creates a feeling of insignificance and reinforces the negative assumption of queer people’s representation being unimportant. Yet, getting rid of these characters through death only deepens that pain and feeling up unimportance. While queer characters are killed off, their straight counterparts survive into the following seasons. Seeing gay characters killed off as if unimportant reinforces the idea that queer people are also unimportant and do not need the representation. However, if queer people were depicted as strong and independent, which they are, then people in the community would feel empowered and would allow for their validation. Depictions of queer people that portray them as powerful lead to both queer and non-queer people understanding that gay people have the ability to be leaders and do anything that their straight and cisgendered counterparts could do. Media needs more queer characters where they are given backstories, characters arcs, and motivations similar to those of their straight