The annual GLAAD Studio Responsibility Index, published Wednesday, shows that 17.5 per cent of 2014's major studio releases boasted lesbian, gay or bisexual characters -- up from 16.7 per cent in 2013.
Of the 114 films studied by the media advocacy group, fewer featured overtly defamatory depictions of LGBT people. However, half of the 20 major studio releases that featured characters identifying as homosexual, bisexual or transgender did so in very minor or even cameo roles.
Comedies (42.1 per cent) were the most likely to feature a LGBT role, and, at 65 per cent it was most likely, across all genres of film, to be a gay man. Just 10 per cent of roles were lesbian women and 30 per cent bisexual.
GLAAD notes that while the figures are an improvement, cinema is still seriously behind television in terms of diverse LGBT representations. "We still struggle to find depictions anywhere near as authentic or meaningful in mainstream Hollywood film," said GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis.
