First off, let it be known that I am completely biased.  I am a bisexual, liberal, gender queer, millennial, university student.  And I have an agenda: I want to be on TV.  I want to have at least some representation of myself or others like me.  I want little kiddies to be able to see someone like them on TV and know that they're not fuck-ups because they don't like gendered toys and they don't see themselves as straight. I didn't have anybody that I could relate to on TV and it has messed me up.  I still don't know how to be in a romantic relationship without having heterosexual gender roles.  However, that being said, it is not just about me.  LGBT representation helps everyone.  It helps straight people understand not-straight people just a little bit more, and be a little more understanding.  It helps LGBT people realize they're allowed to go against this monogamous, straight, gendered ideal we have had established since Christ.  

As to whether or not I'm qualified to write about this subject, yes. I'm qualified because I'm queer, I watch TV, and I have practically no easily accessible representation.  I also like researching gay stuff, so anticipate a ton of references from credible sources on the final essay.

My first source is an article titled "The Effect of Movie Portrayals on Audience Attitudes About Nontraditional Families and Sexual Orientation."  I wanted to start with concrete evidence that representation has an effect on people.  There are other studies I have since found that focus on the people viewing self-representation, but for now this article seemed great.  It focuses on people's reactions and opinions on people based on representation of those people  --  or lack thereof  --  on film.  The bias seems to be very little as the people performing the study do not seem to have a personal stake in the matter.  Also, as a scientific study, they try to minimize bias as well.

The second source I am using is a survey of LGBT people.  It covers a wide variety of topics, but what I think is most applicable is its statistics on LGBT media consumption.  It's a good survey with a large population, if a bit skewed with more gay men than not.  The data will definitely help put things in perspective within my essay.  It is mainly just data and the data is all I will be using, so bias doesn't shine through much considering what types of questions I will be pulling from the survey, but it is definitely important to state that the organization running the survey is an LGBT group.

The third source I found was from the point of view of those against mainstream portrayal of LGBT people on television. It is n article titled "Are There Too Many Gay Characters on TV?" from the Christian Post.  It is an article that calls its viewers to action, asking them to campaign against so called non-traditional family values readily available to children, or people in general. It's important to my case because I went through a bit of doubt on whether I had an opposition, but given the article's support of a group consisting of over a million people, I found my opposition.  As for bias, the entire article is an opinion piece based on the opinion of someone who thinks being gay is against family values, so yes: it's very biased.

Now, on to the argument itself. I am definitely for more representation and I have a lot of stats and numbers that I'll be using, but the crux of my argument will have to rely on pathos.  Yes, there are a tons of stats I can use and studies saying that representation is good, but none of that means anything if I can't make the reader come away feeling that higher rates of representation is good.  The main reason I need to appeal to pathos is because I am asking a majority to care about a minority that is different from them.  Honestly, there isn't much in it for them.  I can't appeal to their common sense or self preservation; I have to just give them the warm fuzzies when they think about helping other people. I have to fight against the people like from the third source I found.  They convinced me that this topic is important.  I don't want the idiots who think being gay is a sin to run what I have access to on media and as such what I think of myself.  My question is going to change as I refine the direction of my ire, right now I can't help but ask: "Why can't we just let Gay people be gay on the TV?"

