Continuing our series of exposés about the TV industry, insiders talk about being misgendered, treated like sexual predators and having to work with ‘outwardly homophobic and transphobic’ talent
• ‘My colleagues ignored me for a year’: what it’s really like to work in TV as a disabled person
• ‘He fell on my body then bit me’: what it’s really like to work in TV as a woman
Despite an increase in on-screen representation and hits such as It’s a Sin and RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, being LGBTQ+ and working in television can still be difficult. It has been described as a “cloak-and-dagger” industry where most people work freelance and therefore are often afraid to speak up about incidents of homophobia or transphobia. The discrimination and harassment that LGBTQ+ people experience is often horribly insidious; dressed up as “banter” or dismissed as ignorance.
Here, seven anonymous LGBTQ+ people who work in television, in front of and behind the camera, share their experiences.
