So far, 2023 has been a remarkably difficult year for the LGBTQ+ community with a record-breaking number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills currently in state legislatures or that have already passed, making it hard for many within the community to live their full lives and let people see the diverse breadth of LGBTQ+ experiences.

But in spite of it all, visibility and representation for the LGBTQ+ community and its individuals continue to grow in media — and more specifically, across streaming platforms.

Related: Celebrate Pride Month with These LGBTQ+ Streaming Services - Start Watching for Free

This week, Nielsen released a new report “The Push For Change: Examining LGBTQ+ Representation in Media and Advertising” as part of its Diverse Intelligence Series. As the title suggests, the 16-page report dives into the representation of the LGBTQ+ community in TV, film, and advertising as well as audience sentiments toward that representation.

One of the biggest takeaways from this year’s report is that TV and movies on streaming platforms are leading the path forward for LGBTQ+ representation compared to traditional linear TV outlets. Nielsen found that streaming TV platforms have seven times the options for LGBTQ+-representative programming with 2,777 titles to choose from. That’s compared to just 416 programs on traditional cable and satellite TV that indicate some form of LGBTQ+ representation in their metadata and descriptions.

The streaming versus traditional split seems optimistic given the steady growth of streaming platforms and available programming, with ad-supported streaming services on the rise, but there is still a long way to go. According to the report, the number of new titles with LGBTQ+ representative content has declined between 2020–2022, and GLAAD’s latest Where We Are on TV Report also notes that of the 175 LGBTQ+ characters that won’t be returning to TV, 140 of those were on series that were canceled or have otherwise ended.

Audiences are still interested in seeing content and characters with experiences different from their own, though. Nielsen found that 87% of audiences are interested in watching shows featuring people from outside their own identity group. What that statistic means specifically for LGBTQ+ representation is unclear, especially considering globally, only 25.6% of global audiences say they’d like programming and advertising to do more to celebrate inclusivity and positive stories about LGBTQ+ individuals.

Despite the narrowing of content and characters and an increasingly hostile landscape for the LGBTQ+ community, especially trans and gender-nonconforming members, more people than ever are finding traditional TV “very non-inclusive” with more than half of both cisgender (53%) and non-cisgender (64.2%) respondents agreeing on the subject, a sign of progress that audiences are both acknowledging and being more selective about bias in their TV-watching habits. Not only that, it’s a clear indicator for both traditional TV and streaming platforms to figure out how to narrow the gap for all audiences to feel welcome and represented.