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To mark LGBTQ+ History month, Franko Kowalczuk‍ reflects on the representation of the LGBTQ+ community in film and music, across both the Golden Age of cinema in Hollywood and the small screen. 

LGBTQ+ people hoping for validation and acceptance tend to look to the arts for positive role models. But traditionally, LGBTQ+ characters have been represented by camp, limp-wristed stereotypes who are never the hero and always a figure of fun. The situation was far worse in the 70’s and 80’s when this attitude was not only accepted but expected. 

And yet, in 1975, only 6 years after the Stonewall Riots, the Rocky Horror Picture Show became a cult classic and still has legions of fans to this day both for the film and the regularly touring stage production. The audience no longer fear dressing like Frank N Furter in stockings and suspenders and instead join in the fun. Elsewhere on TV in the 70’s and 80’s, the likes of the Two Ronnies, Benny Hill and the Carry on Team perpetuated the stereotypes and encouraged their audiences to mock LGBTQ+ characters as well as comedians like Duncan Norvelle with his “Chase me” catchphrase, or Larry Grayson who made his sexuality part of his act. 

This mirrored the attitude of society at large towards LGBTQ+ people. Consequently, very few people publicly came out. Elton John managed a gradual process, first declaring himself bisexual and then marrying a woman, before fully coming out later in the 1980’s. Other pop stars like Marc Almond, Jimi Somerville and Holly Johnson were more discreet and concentrated on their music, although the record-buying public were aware of their sexuality. 

Other flamboyant characters such as Boy George and Freddie Mercury flaunted their sexuality and tried to use it as a selling point. They didn’t come out of the experience unscathed though. George battled extensive demons in the mid 80’s before his triumphant comeback with his solo effort ‘Everything I Own’ in 1987, whilst Freddie embarked on a partying lifestyle ahead of his death from AIDS in 1991. For all that he kept his private life to himself and only held a news conference announcing his illness the day before his death. 

Film star Rock Hudson kept up the pretence of a romantic, Hollywood male lead until his death from AIDS in the mid 80’s. The one signal that maybe times were changing came when the British public bought ‘Relax’ by Frankie Goes to Hollywood in their droves once they found out the subject matter and had seen it banned by the BBC. 

As for trans people, they were largely ignored except in poor humour, such as Cissy and Ada, characters played by Roy Barraclough and Les Dawson in drag, and some jokes in the Inspector Clouseau films. The spread of AIDS set back any chance of LGBTQ+ people being accepted by a generation, out of fear that people could catch the disease simply by touching or sharing a toilet seat. 

Despite the best efforts of Princess Diana, who visited the Lighthouse Centre in London where she was filmed shaking hands and hugging people with HIV, it would be many years before this fear died down. The flames had been fanned by the advertising campaign of the Tory government of the 1980’s which depicted gravestones with bunches of flowers being laid upon them. The introduction of Section 28 by the same government meant that it was against the law to include same sex relationships in teaching at school for fear of damaging “normal, conservative family values”. In the previous decade, former Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe’s career ended when details emerged of his relationship with farmer Norman Scott and the subsequent plot to kill him. 

Of all the media outlets, the one which led the way in dealing with important social issues such as this as it does today, was soap operas. Eastenders showed the first openly gay couple in a relationship amongst its characters in the mid 1980’s, but it would be another ten years before it showed two men kissing. Brookside stole a march on the BBC programme by showing the first lesbian kiss in the early 1990’s, while Hollyoaks first showed a same sex relationship a decade later. None of these stories had a happy ending, although Eastenders’ Colin, played by veteran actor and political activist Michael Cashman, was at least played in a sympathetic manner, while his on-screen boyfriend Barry was teased mercilessly by other characters such as Dirty Den and Pete Beale. The depiction of LGBTQ+ people was still small scale and understated for fear of offending viewers. 

Thanks to efforts of these pioneers, LGBTQ+ relationships and characters began to creep into mainstream films during the 80’s and 90’s onwards. Brokeback Mountain won numerous awards and was highly acclaimed, following on from My Beautiful Launderette, My Own Private Idaho and Beautiful Thing. Nowadays, film goers are less shockable and the likes of coming out drama Love Simon and its spin off serial Love Victor rarely cause a stir. Significant progress was also made by the efforts of Russell T Davis, who wrote Queer As Folk in the late 90’s. Primarily a comedy, it went into graphic detail about gay sexual practices and changed people’s perception forever. His It’s A Sin serial also detailed what it was like to be gay in the 1980’s and living under the fear of HIV and AIDS as well as losing lots of friends to the disease. It set out to shock, and it certainly did. 

Music has also played a key role in this change of attitude, from the early days of Judy Garland to the LGBTQ+ community adopting disco, and later divas such as Donna Summer, Cher, Madonna and Kylie before becoming associated with supergroups such as ABBA and events like the Eurovision Song Contest, which now has cult gay status. 

Since 2005, GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) has published an annual report to show how representation is changing in TV. In the 2005-2006 season, 1.4% of regular characters on broadcast primetime shows were LGBTQ+, whilst in 2020-2021, the figure was up to 9.1% – and over half of these characters were people of colour. It is important to remember though that more can be done – the most recent study found that 20% of these LGBTQ+ characters appeared in a series created by just 1 of 4 TV producers. Progress like the first gay Doctor Who, Ncuti Gatwa, recently are a big help. 

All in all, it is amazing to see how far representation has improved – particularly over the past 20 years – and hopefully, this trend will continue until there is consistent representation of everyone throughout the film and TV industries.