As the late 1990s marked the beginning of meaningful LGBTQ+ representation, showing gay people in a positive, family-related context remained exceptional well into the 21st century: gay characters were often portrayed as threatening family life instead of instigating relationships.
Fair representation, just as legislation and societal acceptance, remain the topic of activism on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community. Between the rigid and dichotomous concepts of a nuclear family and a group of friends among which the main driver appears to be sexual innuendo, an unbiased depiction of ‘the queer family’ formed on the basis of mutual affection and appreciation has yet to become mainstream.
Sofie Taes, KU Leuven - Photoconsortium
This blog is part of the Europeana XX. A Century of Change project which focuses on the 20th century and its social, political and economic changes.
The images used in this blog that are In Copyright were used with permission of Filmoteka Narodowa, Deutsches Filminstitut DIF, and the European Film Gateway.