We Are Not A Part Of That Conversation

Every time a lesbian or bisexual character is killed off, statements from television writers, producers, and showrunners can be summarized as a collection of ‘excuses’ justifying why their own stories do not fit the tropes and citing creative freedom.

What these writers, producers, and showrunners fail to realize is that their stories are the trope. The problem is not that LGBT characters are killed because of their sexuality within the story, but the disproportionately high number of lesbian and bisexual characters killed off, compared to the low rate of representation. LGBT characters are almost invariably written as expendable side characters that are introduced only to later be killed in senseless and shocking ways. What would truly be creative is subverting the tropes and breaking this damaging cycle, for example by letting LGBT characters live and have a happy ending for once.

Even though not all the people listed contributed to the “Bury Your Gays” trope, the statements, which may be found below, perfectly illustrate this lack of creativity through their remarkable similarities. That’s where the pledge comes in. It does not limit creativity; it encourages it. The pledge is a promise to defy the conventional, to avoid tired cliches, to promote LGBT representation through creative storytelling and increased awareness of the tropes and issues. Sign the Lexa Pledge, and show your commitment to breaking out of the mold that the media has been in for decades, because LGBT Fans, and all fans, Deserve Better.

I don’t even want to talk about the trope that’s out there about LGBT characters; that is not something that factored into the decision.

I can’t speak too much to the LGBT’s community’s reaction to what happened, obviously I’m a little shaken by it, by the intensity of the negativity, for sure. […] If I was gonna treat her differently because she was gay then I feel like I’m not telling the story as I see it.

— Jason Rothenberg (The 100), The Dropship podcast
March 5, 2016

Alycia Debnam-Carey as Lexa (The 100) — Credit: Cate Cameron/The CW

Scarlett Byrne, Teressa Liane as Nora and Mary Louise (The Vampire Diaries) — Credit: Bob Mahoney/Jordon Nuttall/The CW

A story trope the writers and I were unfamiliar with.

I did want to mention that I recently became aware of a conversation taking place in the television fan community about a story trope the writers and I were unfamiliar with. […] Unfortunately on The Vampire Diaries, death is the probable outcome for nearly every character who passes through our universe.

— Julie Plec (The Vampire Diaries), ew.com
April 1, 2016

I think that we aren’t a part of that phenomenon or conversation.

If anything, the lesbians should wish for a character like Camilla to be killed off since she just preyed on a powerful lesbian in order to fulfill her heterosexual ambitions.

— Ilene Chaiken (Empire), variety.com
April 6, 2016

Naomi Campbell and Marisa Tomei as Camilla and Mimi (Empire)– Credit: Chuck Hodes/FOX

Amy Acker as Root (Person of Interest) — Credit: CBS

We’re aware of the objections now to that trope, and I think we circumvent that in many ways.

This is a real relationship between [Root and Shaw]. Not only was it consummated but there are real feelings there in subsequent episodes. Not to mention, as Jonah said, we’re heading down the final stretch here. This is not the only loss that Team Machine is going to encounter.

— Greg Plageman (Person of Interest), tvline
May 31, 2016

That’s another thing I thinks separates this from the pack — it’s an evolutionary step.

We haven’t seen these other shows [that killed LGBT characters], so I can’t speak to that, but it’s really just about characters getting their due and not feeling disposable, and not feeling like the audience’s investment in a character is being used against them, or that they’re being set up for it. This was always the end of Root’s story.

That’s another thing I thinks separates this from the pack, and this is how Root feels about it — it’s an evolutionary step. We’re not trying to sucker-punch the audience.

— Jonathan Nolan (Person of Interest), tvline
May 31, 2016

Amy Acker as Root (Person of Interest) — Credit: CBS

Evelyne Brochu as Delphine (Orphan Black) — Credit: BBC

If you did everything that the fans wanted, it wouldn’t be a drama anymore.

From the very beginning, we said we would constantly pull the rug out from people. If there’s a backlash, we earned it. If you did everything that the fans wanted, it wouldn’t be a drama anymore. There would be no mystery to it. Delphine and Cosima would just be naked in bed and that would be the show. We’d just keep cutting to them over and over and everyone would be happy, right?

— Graeme Manson (Orphan Black), thestar.com
April 11, 2016

To make it about, ‘well, we killed off a lesbian character,’ that’s really reductive.

There’s a bizarre focus on the fact that she’s bisexual or a lesbian and has been killed off, and that really reduces her to one thing in representing something, as opposed to being an individual. I find that to be a problematic complaint. She’s so much more than her sexuality and to make it about, ‘well, we killed off a lesbian character,’ that’s really reductive.

There’s a trope too, a predictable storyline, which is that the LGBTQ characters get victimized somehow. But Delphine is only a victim because she made herself a hero. She was ultimately doing right by people.

— Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black), thestar.com
April 11, 2016

Evelyne Brochu as Delphine (Orphan Black) — Credit: BBC

Lauren German as Leslie Shay (Chicago Fire) — Credit: NBC

All the characters were assessed on equal footing.

No, there was no agenda either way. All the characters were assessed on equal footing, so there wasn’t any kind of, ‘Let’s not do this for this reason, not do that for that reason.’ As storytellers, you have to be unsentimental sometimes.

— Matt Olmstead (Chicago Fire), tvline.com
September 24, 2014

I think that's a myth! People get killed off all the time.

In response to: It always seems to be the lesbian characters that get killed off. Why is that?

— Sally Wainwright (Last Tango in Halifax), divamag.co.uk
January 16, 2015

Nina Sosanya as Kate (Last Tango in Halifax) — Credit: BBC

Story is MORE than ANY character, gay or straight.

Am I killing a character to serve a trope? Or to tell honest story?

— David Simon, @AoDespair
April 29, 2016

“Full-spectrum” is highly disproportionate. Credit: Autostraddle

I think you have to show the full spectrum of experience for people

I don’t think it makes any sense to prescribe happy stories for any type of people whether they’re gay or lesbian or black or anything. I think you have to show the full spectrum of experience for people and you shouldn’t be saying we only want to see happy stories or undead lesbians, that doesn’t make any sense to me. And secondly I think it shouldn’t be about: oh, let’s find a subsidiary character that’s a lesbian and give her a nice life or something.

— Sky Gilbert, cbc.ca
May 12, 2016

I don’t think someone should not be expendable just because they happen to be a girl who likes girls.

If you are on a show where danger is ever-present, and the stakes have to be that anyone is expendable, sometimes you have to put your money where your mouth is, and I don’t think someone should not be expendable just because they happen to be a girl who likes girls.

— Emily Andras (Wynonna Earp), themarysue.com
April 28, 2016

It’s dangerous to tell the showrunner how to tell a story

If a character dies and it had a bad message, I support [the Lexa pledge], but otherwise, it’s dangerous to tell the showrunner how to tell a story.

— Carter Covington (Faking It), hollywoodreporter.com
May 6, 2016

Merritt Wever as Denise (The Walking Dead) — Credit: Gene Page/AMC

From my end, it didn’t feel like that’s what was happening.

That’s interesting, I hadn’t thought about it that way.

I’m not sure that that’s what was going on here but I understand the sentiment very well and I am familiar with the [trope of] black characters or gay characters getting killed off because [they’re considered] less human or less real or less important and people aren’t gonna care as much. From my end, it didn’t feel like that’s what was happening though. But I certainly understand the concern in the wider culture.

— Merritt Wever (The Walking Dead), thedailybeast.com
March 20, 2016

Tags: LGBT Fans