Disney might have been taking steps forward to improve in terms of representation and diversity in its Marvel and Star Wars franchises, however, it seems like the House of Mouse's LGBT scenes in recent Star Wars and Marvel film entries aren't really doing that much to help LBGTQ visibility.
GLAAD just recently released its annual "Studio Responsibility Index" report and it looks like two of Disney's biggest 2019 Star Wars and Marvel releases received failing scores in the representation of the LBGTQ+.
For those who aren't familiar with the organization, GLAAD is a media monitoring institution founded in 1985 that holds media organizations accountable for discrimination towards members of the LGBTQ. Starting as a means to fight against LGBTQ+ discrimination in the news media, the organization has evolved and is widely considered to be one of the most influential groups in holding studios accountable for representation.
According to the organization's report, GLAAD's "Vito Russo Test" found that both Avengers: Endgame and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker failed in their poor attempts at representing the LGBTQ+.
Named after one of the organization's founders, Vito Russo, the "Vito Russo Test" jots down criteria that help determine whether a movie or television series portrayal of the LGBTQ+ meets GLAAD's standards of representation.
One of the main criteria of the test states that the LGBTQ+ character has to be important to the film/series plot with the absence or removal of that character impacting the film/series in a "significant" way.
Unfortunately, Endgame and Skywalker had nothing of the sort. Sure, they had moments where the LGBTQ+ were seen (Skywalker had two female Resistance fighters kissing for a brief moment and Endgame had Joe Russo appearing as a man in a group therapy session), they didn't really offer anything to the film's story.
It's easy to see why both films failed. We can only hope that Star Wars and Marvel does better in its attempts at diversity and representation moving forward.
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