Luckily, hope is on the horizon: Although LGBTQ people used to be less visible than Sia’s face in a music video, more LGBTQ-identifying filmmakers, actors, producers, and directors than ever are being given the opportunity to tell their stories. For marginalized groups, truthful representation in film is imperative, even lifesaving, and in today’s stormy political climate there’s an urgency for straight cisgender people to see LGBTQ characters portrayed accurately and unapologetically - and by people who actually know what LGBTQ life is like because they live it. Still, from Sacha Baron Cohen’s fashion-obsessed Brüno to a Scream Queens character nicknamed Predatory Lez, we unfortunately continue to see it all.

LGBTQ people have long been buried under tropes and unsubtle stereotypes in film and television.