Visible: Out on Television's lesson is that the fight for LGBTQ TV representation is never-ending

Los Angeles Times

After watching the Apple TV+ docuseries, Matt Brennan reflected on a 2014 article he wrote titled "Transparent and the New Queer Television." Brennan adds: "I was wrong to imply that the moment might conceivably be a stopping point, a finish line, an achievement unlocked. Indeed, in the years since, I have often found myself frustrated by the feeling that LGBTQ television — whether counted by series, characters, special episodes, even individual scenes — never seems to reach critical mass; the wave ebbs and flows but never crests. The lesson of Visible, of course, is that we will not queer television, much less culture, without a fight — and that fight has no end. We need not accept Pose as the only scripted series built around trans women of color. We need not burden “Looking” with the responsibility of being the one gay show on TV. We need not settle for the flashes, glimpses, echoes of queerness so often intended to placate potential critics, in lieu of the rich characters that are, for straight viewers, a matter of course. We need not, in the end, thank Hollywood, or American culture, for deigning to reflect some minuscule part of ourselves on TV, nor need we ask for more, or for better."