Beyond the Straight and Narrow

This documentary picks up where "Further Off the Straight and Narrow" left off in 2006. How did the rise of LGBTQ visibility, political progress, and digital technologies in the 2000s come together to offer the abundance of complex queer and transgender representations we see today? The streaming services Netflix and Amazon Prime attracted audiences' attention with nuanced and intersectional queer and trans narratives when they debuted the original series "Orange is the New Black" and "Transparent." Legacy channels had to develop more complex and sustained LGBTQ storylines to compete. Queer and ally showrunners use their growing influence to create well-written, diverse roles, and audiences hold producers accountable through social media. And when viewers don't see images that represent them in the media mainstream, a rich array of independent web series offers authentic, community-sustaining narratives. Our digitally connected world circulates mainstream and independent queer and trans television through both official and informal networks. Yet queer and trans television is facing cultural challenges to the presence of LGBTQ in our media, our schools, athletics, and public space. And as distribution channels are moving from niche to mass audiences once again, we cannot take for granted that distinctive LGBTQ characters and plotlines will be a taken-for-granted staple of our television universe. Long-fought cultural struggles persist over who gets to exist in our national imagination.

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