LGBTQ+ characters hit an all-time low on TV. And it's only getting worse

With shows like Heated Rivalry, The Hunting Wives, and Pluribus quickly finding a large fan base and dominating the cultural zeitgeist, it would be easy to think that LGBTQ+ representation on television is improving, but it turns out that the opposite is true.

Queer people are being attacked from all angles — socially, politically, and legally — and it’s being reflected in the decline in LGBTQ+ storylines and characters gracing our television screens.

GLAAD's latest Where We Are in TV study, analyzing the 2025 to 2026 television season, looked closely at broadcast, cable, and streaming TV to understand the state of queer, transgender, and POC representation, and what they found is startling.

Transgender representation collapsed 79%, going from 33 characters during the last television season to now just seven across all platforms. That number is just going to get worse next year because none of the current trans characters are set to return.

Queer representation is shrinking at an alarming rate, with 25% of LGBTQ+ characters on TV disappearing since last season. Cable television hit a 16-year low and broadcast hit a 12-year low.

The percentage of LGBTQ characters of color also dropped from 50% to 44%, the lowest number since 2018, an eight-year low and below GLAAD’s 50% industry benchmark.

Streaming services host over twice as many LGBTQ+ characters than broadcast and cable combined. But things still look dire, considering streamers are also responsible for the biggest losses, cutting nearly 100 LGBTQ+ characters.

This is an especially startling discovery since queer shows like Heated Rivalry, The Hunting Wives, Hazbin Hotel, Stranger Things, and Pluribus were not only wildly successful, but also dominated the cultural conversation.

“Audiences have told you what they want to see. They want to see queer characters,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement. “They want to see a gay and a bi man fall for each other in a sports arena, they want to see two bisexual women fall in love in the midst of a wine-soaked scandal, they want to see young people like them casually living their authentic lives. And despite all the political noise, they want to see people of color and transgender characters on television”

If Hollywood big wigs were smart, they would add more LGBTQ+ characters and shows, not fewer. Instead, they are shooting themselves in the foot if they want to attract younger viewers who are statistically more likely to crave LGBTQ+ representation.

Gen Z adults under 30 are the most out generation, with 23% reporting they are part of the community. That number increases to nearly 1 in 3 when looking at 18 to 24-year-olds. They are also dominating the conversation. Gen Z is 61% more likely than the average American to discuss TV on social media and 55% more likely to discuss TV programming with their friends. And what they want is more LGBTQ+ characters and plotlines, not less, with 58% agreeing that increasing visibility and authentic representation of LGBTQ characters is important to them.

Television networks and streaming services are taking a page out of the conservative playbook and attempting to remove LGBTQ+ people from view. This decline isn’t just a loss for queer representation on our favorite shows; it also has real-world consequences.

HIV stories and characters have all but disappeared, with 70% of adults reporting they haven’t seen any on TV. But the startling fact is that only 1 in 3 Gen Z adults feel knowledgeable about HIV.

GLAAD found similar declines in films in their study from earlier this year, which reported that 2025 marked the third year in a row that LGBTQ+ representation had declined.

Things are also likely to continue this steady collapse because 38% of LGBTQ+ characters on TV this year are not set to return, setting the trend up to continue next year.