GLAAD report says Fox and HBO are most friendly gay networks

A report by GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, has revealed that Fox and HBO are the most gay friendly channels in America.

GLAAD’s annual ‘Where We Are on TV’ report, the 16th such report by the organisation, has concluded that Fox and HBO are the most gay friendly channels in terms of LGBT characters on-screen. According to the report there are 29 LGBT characters on mainstream cable programmes this year – no change from last year – but down on 2008 when there was a high of 40.

As for main-stream non-cable channels Fox leads the way according to the GLAAD report beating rivals CBS, ABC, The CW and NBC.

Fox has 6.8% of its characters (helped by Glee) being LGBT while ABC had 3.4 % – a big drop on last year. Once again at the bottom of the pile is CBS with just 0.7% of its series regular characters being LGBT – or to put it more simple 1 character. CBS is trying to up its LGBT representation, to be fair to it, but with recurring rather than regular characters.

As for the most gay friendly shows on television well HBO’s vampire drama True Blood is once again up there only this year it has to share with Showtime’s Shameless – a remake of the British series which has just passed its 100th episode on Channel 4.

The two dramas had six LGBT character each. In all HBO has 11 regular characters across its shows that are LGBT while Showtime is only just behind with 10 while other channels such as ABC Family, TNT and FX have 4 such characters.