(Jordan Tempro for Forbes)From Transparent to Orange is The New Black, there has never before been as much visibility for LGBTQ issues in mainstream pop culture. In the U.S., transgender women of color are particularly vulnerable to hate crimes--27 transgender people were killed in the U.S. in 2016, the vast majority of them transgender women of color. "So when men find themselves attracted to trans women they have anxiety about that because of their own internalized homophobia and transphobia and they’ve gotten this message that trans women are really men and then this leads to violence." According to GLAAD's 2016 Where We Are On TV report, 4.8% of series regulars were identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer--the highest ever. The number of regular and recurring transgender characters across all three platforms tracked more than doubled, from seven characters in 2015 up to 16 last year.

Source: Forbes October 02, 2017 17:25 UTC