Hollywood's "Bury Your Gays" Trope Explained: History & Controversy

screenrant.com:

In recent years, audiences have heard more about the «bury your gays» trope, leading to questions about its history in Hollywood and why it's so controversial. Even as LGBTQ+ representation in film has improved, LGBTQ+ narratives in film largely revolve around the concept of suffering. Death, villainization, abuse, and tragedy are all common components of the LGBTQ+ experience in Hollywood. Though some stories are slowly starting to break the mold, the bury your gays trope is one that continues to plague LGBTQ+ media.

Proper LGBTQ+ representation in media is invaluable. Not only can it provide empathetic education about LGBTQ+ issues and identities, but it also works to help dispel negative stereotypes surrounding the community and to increase self-acceptance and actualization in queer people. When TV and film only tell stories of suffering and death for their LGBTQ+ characters, it drives home the idea that to be queer is only to suffer. As death tolls continue to rise for LGBTQ+ characters — especially in television, where queer characters are being killed off at a disproportionate rate — the community has called for media creators, including series such as The Walking Dead and The 100, to do better with their portrayals of queer characters and their surrounding narratives.

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The number of queer deaths in television and film has reached such a height that online databases have begun to keep track of LGBTQ+ deaths in media — and the fewer cases where the LGBTQ representation of queer characters leads to a happy ending. Does the Dog Die, a popular crowdsourcing site that tracks triggers and content warnings in media, has a dedicated section to track whether an