{"id":51357,"date":"2026-02-17T08:53:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T07:53:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ket.brussels\/?p=51357"},"modified":"2026-02-17T13:54:54","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T12:54:54","slug":"trump-2-0-meets-a-queerer-tv-are-our-stories-being-written-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ket.brussels\/en\/2026\/02\/17\/trump-2-0-meets-a-queerer-tv-are-our-stories-being-written-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump 2.0 Meets a Queerer TV: Are Our Stories Being Written Out?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


At the very moment LGBTQ+ rights are under renewed attack in the United States, queer and trans characters on American TV are slipping backwards after a decade of historic gains. For a Brussels\u2011based queer audience that has grown up binge\u2011watching US series, this matters: what happens in Hollywood still shapes how we see ourselves, our families and our futures.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Numbers: A Quiet Decline After a Historic Peak<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to GLAAD\u2019s annual \u201cWhere We Are on TV\u201d report, the number of LGBTQ+ characters in US scripted series peaked around 2021\u20132022, with 637 queer characters across broadcast, cable and streaming \u2013 the highest tally ever recorded. Since then, the curve has bent downwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the 2023\u20132024 season, GLAAD counted 468 LGBTQ+ characters, a drop of roughly 21% compared to the 596 characters in the previous report. On US broadcast networks alone, only 8.6% of regular primetime characters were LGBTQ+, down by around two percentage points \u2013 and 31 characters \u2013 from the year before. Cable television lost 62 LGBTQ+ characters in one year, while streaming platforms shed 29.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trans representation remains particularly fragile. In the 2023\u20132024 snapshot, GLAAD identified just 24 trans characters out of 468 LGBTQ+ characters (about 5.1%), eight fewer than in the previous study. For a generation of viewers discovering themselves through trans characters in shows like \u201cPose\u201d or \u201cEuphoria\u201d, this is not just a statistic \u2013 it is a narrowing of the imaginative space where they can exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2024\u20132025: A Rebound With a Dangerous Cliff Edge<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The latest GLAAD report for the 2024\u20132025 season brings a brief sigh of relief: the number of LGBTQ+ regular and recurring characters climbs to 489, an increase of 21 characters (+4.5%) compared to the previous study. On paper, it looks like a soft rebound after the 2023\u20132024 dip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet buried in the same report is the real bombshell: 201 of those 489 characters \u2013 41% \u2013 are not expected to return in the 2025\u20132026 season. Series cancellations, planned final seasons and characters written out of the story create a looming cliff edge. Trans characters are hit even harder: of the 33 trans characters counted, 20 (61%) are not set to come back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This volatility shows how conditional queer visibility still is. One merger, one strategy change, one cost\u2011cutting wave and entire clusters of queer stories vanish from the screen. For LGBTQ+ audiences in Europe, who often rely on US series to see certain identities and family models represented for the first time, the impact is immediate \u2013 fewer queer couples to root for, fewer trans storylines that go beyond tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Trump\u2019s New America and the Pressure on Hollywood<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There is currently no academic study that proves a simple causal sentence like: \u201cTrump\u2019s second presidency reduced LGBTQ+ characters by X%.\u201d But the political climate created by Donald Trump\u2019s return to the White House is already colliding with Hollywood\u2019s diversity efforts in ways that are hard to ignore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US trade press reports that Trump\u2019s administration has launched aggressive attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes in the entertainment industry, including a federal inquiry into Comcast\u2019s diversity schemes and mounting pressure on media conglomerates to retreat from explicit diversity targets. Disney, once vocal about inclusive casting, has been publicly rolling back some of its DEI language and ambitions under political and shareholder scrutiny. In parallel, Trump allies in Congress and conservative state governments have positioned \u201cwoke Hollywood\u201d as a culture\u2011war enemy \u2013 with LGBTQ+ content as a favourite punching bag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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