[DISCUSSION] why does Netflix feel the need to constantly shoehorn "gay" into their productions?

Tokenism is out of control, and it does nothing to advance a story. What it does do is confuse people as to how many people are actually gay. Bear with me and don't just downvote. This is a civil discussion and I merely want to examine the sociological impact of this tokenism.

Experiment:

Go around and ask a few people what they think the percentage of people who label themselves as LGBT is. Don't mess up the wording, it's important.

The biggest answer I got is 30%, but none of the people I asked were even close; they always overestimated. The real answer is approximately 4.5% (and that's up from 3.4% the last time I checked - is this a result?). This disconnect has to have an effect.

Now should 4.5% of the population make their way into most productions for the last 15 years? I bet various races would love more representation instead. How many Asians do you see in American shows? Is this treatment doing anything but profiting from a stance that is rising in popularity?

I love diversity, but when you do it to pander to the audience more than to tell a story, it breaks the 4th wall for me. Am I watching propaganda or fiction? Is this a brand? I would much rather my diversity helped build the story instead of distract from it. Remember, I came here for entertainment, not social justice.

Here's a list of some shows with gay characters: https://www.out.com/lifestyle/2017/12/22/57-netflix-shows-awesome-lgbt-characters#media-gallery-media-9

/r/NetflixBestOf Thread