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GLAAD Reports on Transgender Images on TV

This is Trans Awareness Week (November 14-20) and GLAAD has just released their third annual report on Trans Images on TV. In previous years it was a pretty depressing read, but thanks to shows like Orange is the New Black, Transparent, Drop Dead Diva and Orphan Black things are definitely looking up when it comes to transgender representation on television.

(Note: The Trans Images on TV report just looks at scripted television episodes, so reality shows and documentaries like Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word aren't included.)

Some highlights from the report:

Surprisingly, there were no episodes in which trans characters were portrayed in the villain role they've often been relegated to. Further, there was only one episode with a trans character portrayed as a victim, compared to 19% and 35% respectively in GLAAD's combined previous two reports.

Still, 46% of the episodes depicting transgender characters were considered defamatory. But that does reflect an 8% decrease from past reports.

Only two scripted episodes depicting transgender characters were considered outstanding: Drop Dead Diva's "Identity Crisis" and Orphan Black's "Variable and Full of Perturbation." Both also focused on transgender men, a group that remain largely invisible in mainstream media.

Unfortunately, anti-transgender slurs and dialogue continue to be prevalent with 39% of episodes containing problematic language – often spoken by sympathetic characters and not challenged by anyone else in the episode.

To read the full report visit GLAAD's website.  Clearly there's a long way to go, but this has been a year of advancement for transgender visibility and acceptance, with everything from Laverne Cox gracing the cover of TIME to Transparent becoming one of the most critically acclaimed series of the year.

In addition to the report, GLAAD has also put together this great interactive 40 year timeline of Transgender Visibility:

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