The 'Bury Your Gays' trope and how it became a mainstream problem

WARNING: Spoilers ahead for the latest seasons of The 100, Person of Interest, Empire and The Walking Dead.

Social media is back in a frenzy after the latest death of a lesbian character on television this week.

Samantha Groves or “Root,” became the victim of a sniper bullet in the latest episode of Person of Interest. Played by Amy Acker, Root was in love with Sarah Shahi’s character, Sameen Shaw. The death of Root comes after other seemingly needless deaths of lesbian characters this year, including Lexa from The 100, who’s death brought the most recent awareness to the trope.

The trope in question? “Bury Your Gays” also known as “Dead Lesbian Syndrome,” in which homosexual characters, particularly lesbians, are essentially fated for an unhappy ending. To date, Autostraddle has composed a list of 156 lesbian and bisexual characters that ended up dead, starting with the death of Julie in the 1976 soap, Executive Suite, where she chased her lover into traffic and was run over.

The LGBTQ+ community is outraged - and rightfully so. After years of campaigning for better treatment in the media, there is definitely an uptick in representation in the media; unfortunately the bad generally outweighs the good. The Hollywood Reporter hits the nail on the head when it comes to the glaring issue with this trope: “When death, sadness and despair are the predominant stories we're told, particularly for younger viewers, it can seem like a self-fulfilling prophecy.” Even worse? These characters, “are being killed in a way that reduces their humanity and presents them as inconsequential or comical clichés to be snuffed out like flies,” explains TV Guide.

Over the past three months, we’ve seen major network hits kill off their queer ladies, starting with The 100 and Lexa, The Walking Dead’s Denise, Empire’s Mimi and Camilla and Person of Interest’s Root. However, the creators of the shows are arguing that these characters were not killed off because of their sexuality but because their deaths were central to the plot. Person of Interest executive producer and creator Jonathan Nolan claims to Entertainment Weekly, “This is where our story was going. There’s nothing remotely cynical about anything here. We love this character dearly and this is the f***ing weird thing about writing drama.”

Executive producer Jason Rothenberg of The 100 gave a similar statement regarding Lexa’s death, saying to TV Insider, “We would have told the same story. I stand behind the story [...] This is a show where characters die. That's another reason we were so surprised..it’s a post-apocalyptic world set 100 years later in which anyone can die.”

So are these deaths related to the character’s sexuality, whether directly or not, or is that simply a coincidence? The 100 prides itself on being set in an age where sexuality is something that is inconsequential; after all, when it comes to survival in a post-apocalyptic world, there’s little time to care for that. Nolan explains that this was a happy ending for Root, who “gets her wish” in the end.

While there are certainly two sides of the story here, the bottom line remains the same: the LGBT+ community is becoming more and more vocal about their feelings regarding the "Bury Your Gays" trope and it’s time the media became more conscious of it.