Why Representation Matters, and Not In The Way You May Think
Before I get started, thanks for your patience in the delay from my last post. My grandfather passed away last week, and my family had another health emergency in the same week. Needless to say, it’s been a little hectic in my world, as of late.
I wanted to talk about something that may not be the most politically correct topic. I want to talk about LGBTQ representation in the media. We are in an unprecedented time for queer representation in the media. More characters and more LGBTQ actors are being portrayed on-screen. They are also being portrayed as more than just their sexuality or gender identity too.
Shows like “Pose”, “Orange Is the New Black”, “Special”, and even cartoons like “Steven Universe” show multi-layered LGBTQ characters and explore storytelling pertaining to sexual and gender identity that would have been completely taboo ten or twenty years ago.

Movies like “Love, Simon”, “Dallas Buyers Club”, and “Brokeback Mountain” are movies with complex queer characters that tackle complicated issues of love, illness, and self-discovery. However, the stride to become more inclusive comes with growing pains. Those growing pains exist in the conflict of having heterosexual or cisgender actors or actresses portraying LGBTQ fictional or real people in movies.
If you look at actors that have won major awards for portraying queer people, like Jeffrey Tambor in “Transparent”, Sean Penn in “Milk”, Jared Leto in “Dallas Buyers Club”, and Eddie Redmayne in “The Danish Girl”, you’ll see that all of them identify as cisgender and heterosexual. Some queer people are growing frustrated at cis-het people playing queer characters.
Scarlett Johansson was set to star as a trans man in a movie entitled “Rub and Tug”. However, large backlash was given towards that announcement. Many queer people were up in arms about it, as evidenced by this editorial here. She subsequently withdrew herself from the project because of that backlash. That editorial stated that no cisgender person should play a trans role.
My response is…then what is the point of acting?
Don’t get me wrong. I think there is a large bias towards trans actors and queer actors in general. Our stories aren’t told enough, and we aren’t given nearly enough representation in movies. However, by saying that only trans people can play trans roles, or gay men can play gay roles, etc. takes it too far in my opinion.
If trans people are discouraged from becoming actors because they don’t see themselves portrayed in movies, and only trans people can portray trans characters, then who is going to portray them when someone wants to make a story about trans people?
I liken this idea of representation of queer people to representation of Christians in the media. I know that we’re not all the most loving, kind, accepting people in the world. However, I know a lot of Christians that are generous, compassionate, loving, and sacrificial. I don’t see any of that type of representation in mainstream media. All I see are the evil types of Christians, which further divides “secular” media from Christians in this country. When Ned Flanders of “The Simpsons” is perhaps one of your best representations of Christians on TV, there’s a problem.

The good thing is that every major player in the entertainment industry reads this blog so they’ll be able to read my advice(a man can dream…). Here are my suggestions:
1. Continue to produce content with LGBTQ characters in them and cast them with whomever will do the best job.
That may be a queer actor/actress. It may not be. However, if I can at least see a gay politician, congressman, firefighter/police officer, doctor, etc. on screen, then I know that people will see that queer people are deep within society and that there’s nothing to fear about us. Treat us like any other human being because that’s all we want.
I’m not upset that straight actors Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, James Franco, and Diego Luna played gay men in “Milk”, because they still told the story of Harvey Milk incredibly. The story is more important than the actors who play it.
2. Cast more LGBTQ people in non-LGBTQ roles, and have LGBTQ roles be more than their sexuality.
Queer actors don’t have to play queer roles. Jim Parsons, an out gay man, played a straight nerdy scientist for what seemed like 250 years on “The Big Bang Theory”. Neil Patrick Harris played a womanizer for almost 300 years on “How I Met Your Mother”.
LGBTQ characters don’t have to be defined by their gender identity or sexual orientation. Asia Kate Dillon is a non-binary actor and plays a non-binary character on the Showtime show “Billions”. They’re not just a token character because of their gender identity. They’re a powerfully constructed character, whose attributes also include being non-binary. When the character Oscar Martinez from “The Office” was revealed to be gay, it was surprising because he wasn’t a stereotypical gay man. He was an accountant who happened to be gay.

3. Give better representation of Christians in movies.
This is just a personal one for me. It sucks to only see nice Christian characters in awfully-produced videos. Write Christian characters that are more than just the abusive preacher and father in “Footloose”. Christians aren’t all bad, and the tenets of Christianity are not foreign to people. Actors and actresses who aren’t Christian can summon the strength to play someone who is compassionate, loving, and just. If they can’t, then they may be a sociopath…

I was supportive of Scarlett Johansson playing the main role in “Rub and Tug”. She would have brought an exciting and interesting story to the big screen because she’s a damn good actress. Conversely, I also want to see a co-worker on a sitcom that’s played by a transgender actor, just because they’re right for the role.
Representation comes in many different forms. I want more LGBTQ representation in media. I want more LGBTQ people to be given opportunities to be successful in entertainment. I want them to be great, and to get any role they can play, queer or not.

