Fanlore:Featured Article Archives/2021: Week 1
LGBT Fans Deserve Better, or Lexa Deserved Better, is a fan campaign in response to the death of Lexa on the CW television series The 100, as well as the disproportionately large number of queer female characters killed off on television around the same time.
In March 2016, the Clexa fandom's outrage over Lexa's death, sometimes dubbed Lexagate, quickly turned into a call for action. The goal of the resulting fan campaign was to advocate for positive LGBT representation in media. Fans raised money for charity, arranged boycotts, advertised their cause on billboards, created the Lexa Pledge, and started a non-profit organization. They also took to social media to voice their grievances en masse to the show's network and sponsors.
LGBT Fans Deserve Better garnered widespread media and industry attention, and propelled the "Bury Your Gays" trope into a national talking point. It has since become the subject of much academic scrutiny.
Acafan Dr. Elizabeth Bridges said of the movement:
I've never seen a more widespread or more coordinated fandom response to any event, and I've been a fan and observer of the media since the 1990s.