![Kat [Katharina] Voß](https://www.queermediasociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Kat-Katharina-©-Mireia-Guzman-Sanjaume-150x150.jpg)
11%
of the people living in Germany refer to themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, pan-/omnisexual asexual or other.
That’s according to IPSOS’s “LGBT+ Pride 2021 Global Survey“. And according to the same study, 3% of people in Germany describe their gender identity as trans, non-binary / non-conforming / genderfluid or “in another way”. This puts Germany, along with Sweden, at the top of the 27 countries surveyed.
The media in no way represent that!
The survey “Vielfalt im Film” (“Diversity in Film”), co-initiated by the Queer Media Society in 2019 and supported by a broad alliance of industry representatives, associations and initiatives of marginalized groups, takes a first and important step towards a nationwide survey on diversity and discrimination experiences of filmmakers in front of and behind the camera. The first results have now been published.
In October 2021, the University of Rostock published the “Visibility and Diversity” progress study. The head of the study, Prof. Dr. Elizabeth Prommer, summed up: “The results show that our television programming does not yet reflect the diversity of the population.” For queer representation, it is noted that “only about 2 percent of the people covered during the observation period were not heterosexual.” Visible characters were only homosexual (0.9%) and bisexual (1.3%). In 27.4%, sexual orientation was “not discernible.”
There are no representative surveys regarding the music, advertising and games industry, the print media, publishing and stage entertainment in German speaking regions yet.
This has to change!
What
we
want
More LGBTQIA+-topics and players in the media by taking into consideration a code of practice regarding the topics:
- gender
- gender transition
- sexual identity and orientation
- ethnic origin
- disability/impairment
- body shape/body positivity
- diversity of age
- religion and world view
- socioeconomic and cultural background
The promotion of a diverse and equality-oriented working environment in media companies and institutions
To promote
visibility and representation
of queer people
and their relation- and partnerships.
The goal is to enable a minority to proportionately be part of decision making about personnel decisions, contents and topics and in the media to portray the reality of life.
Only by being present in everyday working life and making it visible in the media beyond stereotypical depictions can it be possible to successfully bring other lifeworlds closer to the heteronormalized working environment and audience and bring about awareness, knowledge and social respect, as well as keeping it.
We therefore demand, that
10% of the regular output
of all media productions
cover LGBTQIA+ contents and characters.
In human resource management of media companies – not only regarding the creative crew – concepts of diversity must be introduced or refined and full-time diversity officers must be nominated.
In order to enforce our demands on a personnel level, it is however essential that as many as possible queer people come out themselves.
We ask all media professionals to do this!
The structural goal of the QMS is to provide the following media sections:
FILM / TV / STREAMING / RADIO (fictional/non-fictional)
LITERATURE / GRAPHIC NOVEL / PUBLISHING
MUSIC
STAGE / EVENT
Working groups and individuals from these media sections develop and offer creative, practical suggestions, handouts and workshops for queer visibility and awareness.
Networking is important! The feedback on the founding of the QMS even more proved how important the need for personal and professional networking and exchange is. But we are neither an agency for queer media professionals nor a job board, but an activist initiative.
Find out who already is part of our initiative in the German version.
Become
a networker
Are you interested in our work or our topics or do you want to get actively involved?
