What the Writer’s Strike Means for Queer Television
By Mya Tran
What was your first queer ship? Who were the fictional characters you dreamed of being in a relationship? Was that relationship canon? I can almost guarantee that it wasn’t. Only in recent years has the queer community seen the relationships they want to see come to life on the screen. Titles like First Kill (2022), Hearstoppper (2022–), and I’m Not Okay with This (2020) should sound familiar. These are all Netflix shows featuring queer characters as the main characters. Two of them were canceled after the first season, despite being wildly popular.
On May 2nd, of 2023, the Writers Guild of America went on strike. The WGA is a combination of labor unions representing writers of Tv shows, movies, and radio shows, as well as other various online media. Claiming falling wages, overwork, and lack of recognition and pay, the WGA has ceased all promotion of works, halting hundreds of projects until they gain fair pay. Outside of general care and concern for the fellow person, why does this matter to the queer community specifically?
Many writers in the WGA and actors in the SAG-AFTRA (the actors guild that has joined the strike) not only support the queer community, but are eager to tell our stories. Larger corporations such as Netflix, Disney, and groups like Hollywood are more concerned with being palatable to the larger population. Thus, they shrink the amount of representation in media that the queer community deserves. They hide behind things like subtext, and killing off queer side characters. It’s rare for TV shows with queer main characters to continue on for a second season, let alone multiple.
Writers are consistently being paid the minimum possible amount in Hollywood, especially queer writers, and writers of color. Major companies have also alluded to using AIs instead of actual writers to continue shows and writing progress. Such actions exclude actual people from the writing process and allows companies to edit the scripts without pushback. If the strike succeeds, it opens doors in major shows for more representation. Shows such as Stranger Things may be able to write a queer storyline, instead of announcing characters sexualities via actors and social media. Major award winning adaptation The Last of Us would be able to continue with its canonical sapphic storyline, one of the few times a WLW storyline would be viewed on major screens by a wide scale audience. A successful strike means that writers will be paid what they deserve to be paid, and would have the financial freedom to create things such as Barbie (2023) again, or revive “killed” shows, such as Warrior Nun (2020–).
While a lack of media for a while might not feel ideal, it is important we stand with the strikers for the future of media. The writers deserve not only a livable pay, but a pay that reflects their hard work and time. Currently, writers are making fractions of what large corporations are making from movies and TV shows. If you want your ships to be canon, if you want to see characters like you, if you want to see more asexuals, people who are gender non-conforming, polycules, pansexuals, support the strike. The future of queer media relies on not crossing that picket line, and paying the writers what they deserve.
The WGA and SAG-AFTRA have asked people to show their support vocally and online. If able, there is also an entertainment community fund to provide writers with shelter and food.
About the Author:
Mya Tran is an incoming junior at Butler University, in Indianapolis, IN. They are currently studying English on the creative writing track and German. Growing up in a small college town with limited queer role models, Tran has spent her life with her nose in the books, looking for someone to relate to.
