Why Wentworth Miller Rejects Russian Film Festival Invitation? [Photos]

GLAAD- known as the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation - released its first annual Studio Responsibility Index which shows shocking results.
There are many well-known gay and lesbian characters on TV shows but the movie industry the scene is different, no prominent characters and no substantial roles for homosexuals.

Major studios appeared reluctant to include LGBT characters in significant roles and substantial portrayal in their movies or franchises.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013, Actor and screenwriter Wentworth Miller rejected an invitation to attend the St. Petersburg International Film Festival, citing Russia's anti-LGBT laws.

In a letter to the Festival's Director, the 'Prison Break' star stated that

"As a gay man, I must decline." "I cannot in good conscience participate in a celebratory occasion hosted by a country where people like myself are being systematically denied their basic right to live and love openly," Miller admitted that he is "deeply troubled" by Russia's lawful brutality toward the LGBT community. www.glaad.org reported.

Read Miller's full letter to the St. Petersburg International Film Festival here

Here are some tweets from thier twitter account:

GLAAD ✔ @glaad

TAKE ACTION: Tell Hollywood you want more #LGBT characters in film http://www.glaad.org/blog/take-action-tell-hollywood-you-want-more-lgbt-characters-film ...

10:53 PM - 21 Aug 2013

GLAAD ✔ @glaad

Tell Hollywood that more inclusive films can make a difference! http://www.glaad.org/tellhollywood #LGBT

11:27 PM - 21 Aug 2013

In a very scrutinising move on films, the group has tracked the presence of LGBT characters on television for two decades.

"Hollywood films are one of the country's most visible cultural exports,"

"Whether it's an action hero or a supporting character, moviegoers should be able to see LGBT people as integral players in the stories told by leading Hollywood studios." Glaad spokesman Wilson Cruz said.

The group released its first annual Studio Responsibility Index which showed that 20th Century Fox included no LGBT characters in any of its 15 releases in 2012

• Out of 101 films released by the major studios, 14 films had lesbian, gay, or bisexual characters.
• Of those 14 films, only four highlighted gay, lesbian, or bisexual characters that had a substantial role in the story.
• Disney had total of one movie out of 13 -with "The Avengers" having a short cameo by openly gay MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts.
• Of the 31 different characters counted, 26 were white (83.9%), four were African American (12.9%) and one was Latino (3.2%).

"Seeing how much progress we've seen in television over the past few years, by comparison we felt in our gut really thought that the film industry was lagging behind,"

"And that was the case." Matt Kane, associate director of Entertainment Media at GLAAD, told The News.

According to the report, Glaad urged for more LGBT characters in films as well as giving them better-quality roles, particularly in big budget action movies and comic book adaptations. The "vast majority" of the LGBT characters were just cameos and none of the films had transgender characters.

Glaad complained that some appearances were not positive such as Javier Bardem's villain Silva in Skyfall, who was portrayed as bisexual.

The report said his character "plays into some old cinematic clichés of bisexual people being duplicitous or unbalanced".

The report came up with an assessment to find out whether an LGBT character was portrayed by more than their sexual course in the Hollywood movies. Only six of the 14 passed with the best marks going to Cloud Atlas and Pitch Perfect as reported by hollywoodreporter.com