Over history, human beings have enjoyed millions and millions of stories, whether it be in film or in books or in art or in theater...humans continuously create and consume characters. Characters shape who we are as people, we see ourselves in them. We relate. Which is why it's alarming how quick humans are to erase and ignore LGBT characters.

Yes. It is exactly what is done. Straight and cisgender people refuse to acknowledge the importance of LGBT characters and assume every character is straight until proven otherwise. So, of course, when queer people like myself start to view a character as queer we are laughed at. Or worse, the responses we get to wanting characters like ourselves are angry. Why? Is it a crime to read into the queer subtext of a character, television show, or movie? Of course not, but these people who say "who cares what their sexuality is" or "of course they're not gay, you're just looking too far into it" fail to realize that when they say that it makes it feel like a crime.

Representation in media is so important, but it seems that over the years the only characters that are represented are cis, straight and white. This isn't the "social justice warrior" in me rearing her angry head (although it is a bit), this is a girl who grew up never understanding who I was yet wanting to. A girl who grew up in the dark.

Things, of course, are getting better slowly, but that doesn't change that there's not enough representation and there is even less GOOD representation. LGBT youth need characters to relate to, they need to be able to understand and to feel safe. LGBT stories and characters are far from normalized, many television networks won't even allow characters to have relationships with the same sex. This leads us to queer-baiting, which is even more harmful to the LGBT community and LGBT youth. Queer-baiting is when media (usually television or film) adds tension between two same-sex characters and pairs it with loads of subtext but never does anything about it. Therefore, reeling in or "baiting" LGBT individuals to watch it but never giving them the representation they seek. A false hope, if you will, never venturing into blatant and confirmed LGBT territory so that the "larger" straight and cis audience isn't uncomfortable.

The show Supernatural is a good example of this, many fans have watched a love story between the characters Dean Winchester and Castiel forming, and queer subtext has been used many times yet it never goes anywhere. Queer fans still watch and hold onto that hope as the majority of the casual fans are left feeling comfortably straight and not challenged.

A good example of a show that isn't queer-baiting and is building up a well represented and beautiful queer love story is BBC Sherlock. If you watch closely and look into the queer subtext of the show, there's no denying this. Yet many people doubt this because they don't believe that Sherlock Holmes or John Watson could be anything but straight characters. Like I said before, this is where people laugh or get angry. How could these amazing characters be gay? That's ridiculous! If they were going to make it gay they would've done so at the beginning.

Well...I've got some news for you friends, it is gay from the beginning. Though LGBT story arcs and subtext is so underrepresented that people are blind to them, or even refuse to try and look into it, disregarding even the most blatant things. And don't even get me started on Star Trek...

Aside from all of this, lack of representation and lack of good representation truly is harming the LGBT community and its youth, especially with trans individuals. People are still not quick enough to do anything about it. The small handful of queer characters that we have on television or in movies are overly stereotyped and harmful. The good representation we have that isn't stereotyped or harmful is few and far between, and the characters we see as queer through the subtext of the shows or films aren't confirmed as such.

So many people argue that representation isn't important and that it doesn't matter what a characters sexuality is, but it's because they see themselves every day in media. In their favorite characters. Why aren't LGBT characters and LGBT television shows and films more normalized? Why hasn't the film industry caught up yet? I suppose those questions aren't ones anyone can land an exact answer to. However I do know one thing, it needs to be changed and it needs to be changed fast.