Do LGBT characters in film and TV offer a fair reflection of gay life?

Gay life is not uniform and the depiction of a particular character may not be fully representative, writes Caomhan Keane

Going to the flicks is an event that’s become fraught with moral conundrums for those of us who are politically correct. To sit through a film with a clear conscience one must put their prospective movie through a series of tests — such as the Bechdel, DuVernay and the Vito Russo tests, to ensure the movies we watch represent minorities, women and LGBT characters in a way that at least pays lip service to their real life.

Each test has three basic principles. There is minor differentness between them but the general gist is that two or more such characters need to exist in the story and exist beyond their race/gender/sexuality, and that they function beyond bringing colour to the narrative of a white, hetro cis-gendered lead.