Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-13022928-20180109024620/@comment-27794543-20180111232712

Comparing race and LGBT+ is a poor comparison because, in general, one is vertical identity (you share with your parents) and one is a horizontal identity (you are different from your family). A better comparison would be disability since it is also a horizontal identity (though different groups are always different). The reason I point that LGBT+ is a horizontal identity is IP's point that many LGBT+ youth don't know anyone like themselves thus look to tv, books, etc. Most youths know many people of their own race so they don't need to look to fiction. That's partially why a fictional LGBT+ character can be so impactful.

Death trope is not unique to LGBT+, there is the Black Dude Dies First trope & others. In recent years there has been some push back against black female deaths, especially when furthering a white man's storyline. What percent of LGBT+ characters have been killed off vs non-LGBT+ characters? I don't think we should ban all deaths, but we should make sure minorities aren't disproportionately red shirts, that major & minor characters who're LGBT+ aren't disproportionately killed off. And when deaths happen, try to still avoid the trope.

As someone who's bi, I am annoyed by the implication that killing a LGB character is worse if later that character's bi partner enters a heterosexual relationship. In real life, bi people are discriminated against including within the gay/lesbian community. The fact that bi partner is still bi shouldn't make a death worse. I understand that lesbians/gays want lesbian/gay relationships, but bi people want bi characters too & bi characters should be allowed to have straight relationships.

As a side note, these days fictional cop shows do a lot better job showing diversity, both in criminals and police. I've watched many crime shows in the last decade (Lucifer, Forever, Criminal Minds, Bones, Dexter, etc.) and none of them had majority African American criminals. Other genres also do a much better job in diversity. There are also more shows focusing on different groups (e.g. Empire, Jane the Virgin, Speechless, etc.), including LGBT+ (e.g. Transparent, When We Rise, etc.).