Transgender roles and storylines 'missing' from UK programmes, admit C4 and BBC
Published Wednesday 6 October 2010 at 11:31 by Matthew Hemley
http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/29842/transgender-roles-and-storylines-missingEqual Roles: Storylines featuring transgender people are missing from television programmes because of commissioners' lack of "confidence and understanding" about the issue, senior figures at BBC and Channel 4 have admitted.
Both Tim Davie, who is the BBC's chair of its working group on the portrayal and inclusion of lesbian, gay and bisexual audiences, and Stuart Cosgrove, who is director of creative diversity at Channel 4, have claimed commissioners' knowledge of the subject is limited, resulting in a lack of shows about transgender people.
Cosgrove, addressing a Westminster Media Forum about the portrayal of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people this month, described the issue as the "big single absence in broadcasting".
