Sir Ian McKellen has given an appropriately sassy response to Hollywood’s sever lack of LGBTQ representation in major studio movies.
The British actor criticised the film industry for mistreating LGBTQ people, as well as women and ethnic minorities.
“Well, nobody looks to Hollywood for social commentary, do they?” Sir Ian said to TimeOut London. “They only recently discovered that there were black people in the world.
“Hollywood has mistreated women in every possible way throughout its history.
“Gay men don’t exist. Gods and Monsters, I think, was the beginning of Hollywood admitting that there were gay people knocking around, even though half of Hollywood is gay.”
Sir Ian’s comments come as the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organisation, GLAAD, report that there has been a significant drop in LGBTQ representation in major motion pictures released over the past 12 months.
Despite big gay dramas such as Moonlight and Call Me By Your Name, GLAAD found that of the 109 releases from major studios in 2017, only 14 (12.8%) of them included characters that are LGBTQ.
That’s over a 5% decrease when compared to 2016, when 23 out of 125 (18.4%) major movie studio releases included LGBTQ characters.
It’s also the lowest percentage since GLAAD began tracking LGBTQ representation in major films back in 2012.
What’s even more concerning is that not a single one of the 109 major studio releases included a transgender character.
Earlier this year, Sir Ian McKellen celebrated the anniversary of his public coming out with a wonderful post on social media.
“I’ve never met a gay person who regretted coming out – including myself,” he said.
“Life at last begins to make sense, when you are open and honest. Today is the 30th anniversary of the BBC radio discussion when I publically [sic] said I was gay. So I’m celebrating!”
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