Number of non-binary characters on TV shows in the U.S. 2016-2022

In the United States, in the 2021-2022 season, 25 characters of prime-time broadcast, cable, and streaming TV shows were non-binary. Since the 2017-2018 season, the number of non-binary characters in TV shows has increased dramatically.

LGBTQ+ community

First introduced in the 1990s, the acronym LGBT, which stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, includes anyone who is not heterosexual, namely, attracted to the opposite sex, or cisgender (i.e., a person whose gender identity is the same as their sex at birth). Since then, new versions have been introduced to include the whole spectrum of sexuality and gender, like LGBTQ+, where “Q” stands for queer. Despite homosexuality still being perceived as controversial or even as crime in some countries, its acceptance is rising in the United States, Canada, Australia, and many European countries.

LGBTQ+ community in the TV industry

In recent years, the TV and movie industry has increasingly included minority groups. Nowadays, many broadcast, cable, and streaming TV shows include characters that are part of the LGBTQ+ community and ethnic minorities. For instance, in the 2021-2022 season, Netflix was the streaming content provider that promoted the highest number of LGBT characters, followed by HBO Max with 71 LGBTQ+ characters. Moreover, in the same season, 17 percent of LGBTQ+ characters on American streaming services were black and 13 percent of them were Latinos.