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 kids to be able to see someone like them on TV and know that they are not wrong or broken because they don't see themselves as heterosexual. I did not have anybody that I could relate to on TV and it has messed me up.  For instance, 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. Representation helps everyone and the focus of my essay will be representation of people from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans community (LGBT).  Representation of LGBT people helps straight people understand not-straight people just a little bit more, and be a little more understanding.  Representation helps LGBT people realize they are 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 am. I'm qualified because I'm queer, I watch TV, and I have practically no easily accessible representation.  I will use the help of other credible sources to both help prove my case to the reader but also help my own understanding.

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 best.  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 study was held at University of Oklahoma by Michelle Mazur MA and was published in Rutledge journal.

The second source I am using is a survey of people who identify as LGBT.  It covers a wide variety of topics, but what I think is most applicable is its statistics on LGBT media consumption.  It is 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 does not 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 an 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, it gives validity to my argument's importance.  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 arguing for more representation and I have a lot of statistics and numbers that I will be using, but the crux of my argument will have to rely on pathos.  Yes, there are a tons of statistics I can use and studies saying that representation is good, but none of that means anything if I cannot 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 is not much in it for the majority.  I cannot appeal to the majority's common sense or self preservation. I have to just give them the warm fuzzies when they think about helping other people. I have to answer the question "Why Should The Majority Care About Minority Representation?"

