Pledge to Do Better

Granted, this video is jokey. That tends to happen when you get a bunch of funny a bunch of professionally funny lesbian ladies together. But the sentiment behind the humor, that there are literally a zillion other things to do with lesbian characters rather than kill them, is of course spot on.

Also spot on is the new Lexa Pledge, which was created by writers and producers of the Canadian series “Saving Hope” in support of the thriving LGBT Fans Deserve Better campaign. And what is says, in seven rather succinct points, that it strives to provide better, more representative, non-stereotypical portrayals of LGBTQ characters. And it also promises to not kill off LGBTQ characters “solely to further the plot of a straight one.” I’ve said it before, but not every show that kills an LGBT character is irredeemably bad. Characters die all the time on TV. Hell, two more queer female characters died last week. But the overall effect of this mass of killings is a cultural narrative that tells an already underrepresented group its life story is overwhelmingly tragic. And that is bad.

The pledge has collected more than a dozen signatures so far from producers and writers on shows like “Saving Hope” and “Rookie Blue” and “The Catch.” But what it really is is provide further confirmation that LGBT Fans Deserve Better is a real and powerful campaign that is helping to change the way the entertainment industry respects its LGBT characters and fans.

I’d also like to address the predictable knee-jerk reaction by some in Hollywood to the campaign. When faced with criticism, your first instinct shouldn’t be to throw up your hands and say, “Fine, I’m taking my toys and going home.” Yet there are some who counter reasonable concern about the Bury Your Gays trope with the claim that people will be too afraid to write LGBT characters at all now. The answer to poor representation is not less representation. When we say we’re sick of the Dead Lesbian Syndrome, the response shouldn’t be to say well then we’ll just stop writing lesbian characters. The point, you seem to be missing it.

The point is to write realistic, representative and non-reductive LGBT characters. Which, really, should be the point of writing any character. Why write a whole character simply to prove a tired point? Unless you’re writing a modern version of “Aesop’s Fables,” the goal of character development should be a fully realized person with agency – not matter the person’s gender, race, sexual orientation, whathaveyou. You need a way to give your straight white (usually male) lead more motivation. Buy him a poster with a kitten hanging from a tree limb that says, “Hang In There!” It’s not less original as it is to kill off the woman or minority or gay character.

The funny thing about the whole LGBT Fans Deserve Better campaign is that, in the end, what we’re really asking for is better TV, period. If producer and writers start treating LGBT characters with more respect and representation, it will actually make their shows better. Because who starts writing a TV shows and says, you know what, I’d really love to write a character that is stereotypical, hackneyed and falls into a predictable trope that is harmful to a vulnerable community of people who look to it for hope of a better future? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

p.s. I did hear about The Catch killing off a gay lady. But since I have not watched I will reserve judgment on it for the time being.