Yet, sexual minorities in many cases are ignored because of the conventional media and addressed as though they cannot occur. This exclusion happens to be posited to contribute to maintaining minorities that are sexual and without energy, an activity which Gross relates to as “symbolic annihilation” (Gross, 1991; Gerbner & Gross, 1976).

Portrayals of gay folks of all ages have now been uncommon and frequently negative (Gross, 1991, 1996; Moritz, 1994), and portrayals of young nonheterosexuals are also less frequent (Kielwasser & Wolf, 1992). Programs for adolescent audiences often portray an exclusively heterosexual environment, with only occasional brief appearances by adolescent figures who will be confused about their sex (Kielwasser & Wolf, 1992). This is really important because homosexual adolescents usually cannot get information strongly related their orientation that is sexual from and family members that can make use of tv as being a supply of data about homosexual dilemmas (Paroski, 1987). (more…)