GLAAD's 2014 Studio Responsibility Index Ranks LGBT Representation In Hollywood

Hollywood Gets Scored On LGBT Representation And The Results Aren't Exactly Pretty

Seventeen major Hollywood movies may have included characters that identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) last year, but there's still work to be done in terms of representing the community fairly and equally, a new report has found.

With many of those 17 films limiting LGBT characters to minor roles or cameos, GLAAD's 2014 Studio Responsibility Index also found that many of these portrayals were "outright defamatory" representations, pointing to movies like "Pain And Gain" and "Riddick," officials said.

The 17 films represented 16.7 percent out of 102 major Hollywood films released over the course of 2013. According to GLAAD's statistics, 83.3 percent of those 102 movies did not feature any LGBT characters.

The report, which maps the "quantity, quality and diversity of images" of LGBT people as seen in movies released by Hollywood's seven largest studios each year, found that the motion picture industry "may be doing more harm than good" when it came to a global understanding of the LGBT community, GLAAD's CEO and President Sarah Kate Ellis said in an email statement.

“These studios have the eyes and ears of millions of audience members, and should reflect the true fabric of our society rather than feed into the hatred and prejudice against LGBT people too often seen around the globe," she added.

None of the seven studios received an "excellent" rating, but Sony Columbia came in on top with a "good" score, thanks to movies like "Mortal Instruments: City of Bones," which also nabbed a GLAAD Media Award nomination. Meanwhile, Universal and Disney were among the studios to receive an "adequate" grade, while both Paramount and Warner Brothers were considered outright failures.

Meanwhile, to assess individual films, GLAAD officials developed the "Vito Russo Test," which examines how multidimensional a LGBT character is, as well as how significant he or she may be to the plot of a specific movie. Seven out of the 17 major studio films featuring LGBT characters passed the test this year, according to the report.

See how the 2014 results compared with last year's Studio Responsibility Index here.

To read more about GLAAD's 2014 Studio Responsibility Index, head here, or see how your favorite studio ranked below.

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GLAAD's 2014 Studio Responsibility Index

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