Mandating quotas for movie characters will stunt the creative process

The GLAAD organization’s CEO, Sarah Kate Ellis, has given the movie industry a “poor grade” because LGBTQ representation in movies fell significantly in 2017 (Wednesday Review-Journal). She is calling for the movie industry to commit to levels of inclusion of such characters in major movies to 20 percent by 2012 and 50 percent by 2024.

Having been a songwriter and author myself, as well as a journalist and artist for nearly 50 years, I feel that the arts and movies should represent storytelling without undue pressure or demands from any special-interest group. Otherwise our art, our music and — in this case — our movies will not be created by people free to write stories wherever the creative process takes them. Instead, they will be forced to add in story lines included only because of the pressure of one special-interest group or another. That will cause writers to work under pressure rather than the free creative process.

I do not think that will be good for any of our books, our works of art or our movies.