PTP Pink Paper

Life imitates art. Screen, in particular, is a powerful medium for shaping our realities.

Over generations, viewers have learned what a queer person is by seeing us represented on screen. Historically, those images have been largely distortions and omissions, with many Canadians not seeing themselves reflected at all. 

The classic 2SLGBTQIA+ tropes are legendary: Villain. Coward. Predator. Victim. The list goes on. Even in the modern era, we are still too often the sad sack proxy for thinly veiled social issues or the gay best friend existing only to prop up the straight lead. We are not alone in these portrayals—other marginalized communities share our pain in dubious and often damaging representation.

We recognize how far depictions have come over the last few decades even as we acknowledge that there remains pressing work to be done. As one of the world’s longest publishing queer media enterprises, Pink Triangle Press has always been invested in 2SLGBTQIA+ visibility on screens because we know that representation is vital to how we are perceived, how we perceive ourselves, and ultimately how we are treated.

Thanks to the generous support of the Canada Media Fund and Telefilm Canada, Pink Triangle Press has launched this foundational research to report on the current state of 2SLGBTQIA+ representation across film, television, online streaming services, and videogames here in Canada. We gathered valuable insights from stakeholder interviews, a survey of Canadian media professionals, and a content analysis of the top Canadian television programs in French and English to understand the nature of 2SLGBTQIA+ representation in Canadian media. The PTP Pink Paper identifies gaps and barriers but also opportunities. This work in no way represents a chastisement, but rather an invitation to collaborate, innovate, and celebrate.

We believe that the Canadian screen industries are uniquely positioned to be global leaders in a more authentic and dynamic approach to diversity, both on screen and behind the scenes.

We look forward to this research being part of this important conversation and our hope is that we all use its tools, and our own personal agency, to “catch up to tomorrow” and engage in meaningful shifts in 2SLGBTQIA+ representation in Canadian media.

– David Walberg, CEO, Pink Triangle Press