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Disney, Warner Bros, Get Failing Grade From GLAAD

"Hollywood's films lag far behind any other form of media when it comes to portrayals of LGBT characters," said GLAAD president Sarah Kate Ellis.

GLAAD released its fourth annual Studio Responsibility Index (SRI) today, a report card gauging the quantity, quality and diversity of representations of LGBT people in films released by the major Hollywood studios during the 2015 calendar year.

While GLAAD found that LGBT representations are sorely lacking across the board—in fact, no studio received a rating of "Good"—but 20th Century Fox, Lionsgate Entertainment, Sony Columbia Pictures, and Universal Pictures all received ratings of "Adequate."

Paramount Pictures, Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros, meanwhile, all received a "Failing" grade for their portrayals.

"Hollywood's films lag far behind any other form of media when it comes to portrayals of LGBT characters," said GLAAD president Sarah Kate Ellis. "Too often, the few LGBT characters that make it to the big screen are the target of a punchline or token characters. The film industry must embrace new and inclusive stories if it wants to remain competitive and relevant."

Of the 126 major cinematic releases in 2015, only 17.5% (22) include LGBT characters, representing no change from 2014. Representations of LGBT people of color, however, have declined from 25.5% of all LGBT characters to 32.1% in 2014.

To pass GLAAD's "Vito Russo Test," a film must include an LGBT character who is integral to the story but not defined solely by their orientation or gender identity. Only 8 of the 22 (36%) major studio films that featured an LGBT character passed the Vito Russo Test in 2015, the lowest percentage in the report's history.

Mainstream releases called out by GLAAD include The Duff, Hot Tub Time Machine 2, Hot Pursuit, Get Hard (above) and Dumb and Dumber To. LGBT films like Grandma and Freeheld, were praised, but Lionsgate's Stonewall, a retelling of the riots that birthed the modern gay-rights movement, was criticized for focusing too much on its Midwestern lead and "telling a whitewashed version of the riots, erasing many of the real stories of LGBT people of color and women who were instrumental in the rebellion."

Highlights from the Studio Responsibility Index report include:

* The majority of LGBT characters in mainstream films remain minor—both in substance and screen time. Of the 22 LGBT-inclusive films, almost three quarters (73%) of them include less than ten minutes of screen time for LGBT characters.

* LGBT portrayals on film are overwhelming white (72.3%) and male (77%).

* There was only one trans character in the mainstream releases of 2015, and her brief appearance serves as a punchline when her identity is revealed.

* 2015 saw a notable resurgence of outright offensive depictions of LGBT people, relying on gay panic and defamatory stereotypes for cheap laughs.

While prestige films like The Danish Girl, Tangerine and Carol garnered critical acclaim, they were produced by smaller studios like Focus Features and the Weinstein Company and therefore not included in this survey.

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