PSA: Stop Killing Lesbians On TV
PSA: Stop Killing Lesbians On TV
LGBT characters deserve better than a stray bullet.
LGBT characters deserve better than a stray bullet.
Lexa
Hello?
Tara M
Welcome to Dead Lesbian Purgatory.
Lexa
What is this place?
Tara T
It's the place where all lesbians on TV go to die.
Tara T
Lexa
Damn. I'm actually dead?
Denise
Yep. The sooner you find love, the sooner you bite the dust.
Tara M
And we never die peacefully. I got hit by a stray bullet.
Denise
I got shot through the eye with an arrow.
Leslie
A pipe crushed my skull .
Gaia
I was murdered for sport.
Tara T
And I died twice. Aren't vampires supposed to live forever.
Tara M
Did you know that since 1976, 65% of all queer women characters on TV have been killed off.
Denise
And in 2016 alone, 12 female queer characters have met an untimely end.
Lexa
Our representation on television is only to further the plot. Why are gay characters more disposable than straight ones?
Leslie
We need to put an end to the #BuryYourGays trope. We're worth more than just spilled blood.
Denise
In The Walking Dead's original comics, a straight male took the crossbow through the eye. But on TV, I had to die this way.
Gaia
But what if the show operates in a world where death is omnipresent? Which, for most of us, that's the case. Spartacus, Buffy, The 100, True Blood, The Walking Dead...
Tara M
It shouldn't matter that I was on a supernatural show. These shows still off us in ways that feel both gratuitous and unnecessary. The Vampire Diaries just did it twice, having Mary Louise and Nora explode together in a burning car.
Mary Louise & Nora
The moment we find ourselves back together, we're forced to die.
Lexa
Our deaths are so tragic. Why can't writers imagine storylines for queer people that don't revolve around their sexualities? Before I got with Clarke, I was a powerful female warrior. The moment I slept with her, I was identified as The 100's lesbian character.
Tara T
It seems that when we finally get what we want (i.e., love or sex), we're deemed no longer necessary.
Tara M
It's time for a change. I've been in this purgatory for too long!
Denise
We need our lives to be more positively depicted in popular media.
Tara T
Let's start with the movement to give Elsa a girlfriend!
Leslie
At least Disney won't kill her off.
Lexa
Well. . .
Mary Louise & Nora