Our generation has had a dramatically different exposure to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and questioning (GLBQ) community than any other, largely due to the emergence of widespread media representation over the past decade.

Queer Eye's �Fab Five�

This new presence has changed our views of GLBQ people more than other generations. We have grown up with the dramatic stories of Ellen DeGeneres and Matthew Shepherd and comedies like Will & Grace. As gays have become a stronger media presence, they have been introduced as a group into mainstream America. I believe this has led to greater acceptance of the GLBQ community among teens.�

Beginning in 1993, with Philadelphia, in which Oscar-winner Tom Hanks played a gay male struggling with HIV, the past 10 years have brought a surge of �gay content� media events. Glennda Testone, regional media director for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD),�says�Philadelphia�is �one of the first big, mainstream movies to deal with gay, HIV-affected issues that was embraced by both the critics and the public.��

Although many teens are too young to remember the film, it began a trend in American popular culture. Three years later, in 1996, Ellen DeGeneres came out as a lesbian on national TV on her sitcom, Ellen, which had been running since 1994.�The show was cancelled shortly afterwards, but DeGeneres advanced the representation of GLBQ people in the media by becoming one of the first known lesbians in popular culture.�

A very different look at the GLBQ community came in 1998 with the widely publicized murder of gay teen Matthew Shepherd, who was beaten to death because he was gay. NBC documented the tragedy in The Matthew Shepherd Story, a special that aired nationally in 2002.

A Closer Look

These early representations of GLBQ culture in the media also brought the community into the mainstream. Seeing gay people on TV and in movies �allows people to know gay people and admire things about them,� says Testone. This encourages not only acceptance, but appreciation, she adds.

By presenting endearing gay and lesbian characters, who are welcomed as entertainment by an adoring public, the media�can also examine more difficult gay issues in a �non-threatening environment,� Testone explains. For example, in the HBO series Six Feet Under, one character struggles to discuss his homosexuality with his more religious and traditional family. While these dramatic scenes are not as widespread, they do appear.�

�You can see in most of these shows that [gays] are just people who want to be liked and loved like everyone else,� says Zoe Levesque, 18, of Vancouver, WA. �Many people support them and they are strong enough to deal with the people who don�t.�

And then there are the comic representations of young, urbane gay men in Will & Grace or Queer Eye, which have made Jack and the Fab Five modern American sweethearts. While these characters have helped improve acceptance of the stereotypical gay male, they have done little for the image of other members of the GLBQ community. The community is composed of many types of people, but the media show �no people of color, no people�over 25 ... [and] no transgenders,� Testone says.

Still, some teens say these shows help people understand that gay men are individuals in their own rights.

Lieschen Gargano, 17, of Boulder, CO, says programs that include different �types� of gay men, such as Will & Grace, �show that just because [the characters] are gay does not mean they have to fit into a mold.��

Gargano also cites Queer Eye, saying the show is �really fun, [because] there are five completely different personalities, and while they are all gay, they are not all stereotypical gay men.�

But the presentation of almost only gay men does misrepresent a diverse community. Testone says shows like Will & Grace �perpetuate the stereotype that the gay community is white, rich, and male.��

She would like to �see a show that dealt with how being gay intersects with other areas�race, gender, religion, etc.�because�they are�rarely represented.� So many shows have gay stock characters, where being gay is all those characters are. It�d be interesting to see how the experience of growing up as a black lesbian teenager contrasted with that of a gay Orthodox Jew or something like that.�

Still, GLBQ people's emergence in the mainstream media�over the past decade has improved our generation�s perception of the community.�

�[The media] show teens that the GLBQ community is no different than everyone else,� Gargano says. �And that there is no reason to be uncomfortable around them.�

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