New diversity rules set out by the BBC outline plans to have 8 percent of those on screen, on air and in leadership roles to be LGBT and 8 percent disabled by 2020.
The BBC will also announce that half of the roles will be filled by women by 2020, reports the Press Association.
The broadcaster is to “pledge to go further than ever before on targets for the representation of women, disabled people, ethnic minorities and LGBT people on and off air.”
The BBC went on to say that it wants to either meet “or better” other broadcasters’ diversity targets in terms of representation.
A BBC spokesman said: ” We are making good progress in our work to make the BBC a truly diverse organisation, but there’s more to do and we’re always keen to improve.
“Almost half of our workforce is made up of women and the proportion of our workforce who are black, Asian and other ethnic minority is at an all-time high.
“We’ll continue doing what works but also develop new and innovative ideas to do even better, and we’ll set this out in our new diversity strategy shortly.”
According to PA, 48.4 percent of employees at the BBC are women but only 41.3 percent in leadership roles.
As well as increasing numbers of disabled, LGBT and female people in on and off screen roles, it will also aim to have 15 percent of its workforce from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.
A BBC source said: “The BBC is a diverse organisation, whichever way you look at it, with the proportion of staff from ethnic minorities at an all-time high and content from Undercover and The A-Word to Employable Me and The Victoria Derbyshire Show.”
The source went on to say that the BBC will “undertake to deliver more”, and won’t become complacent.
Adding that “diversity is more than any single characteristic.”
“We are the BBC and must be held to a higher standard. The range of the BBC’s programme and services, and the fact that we will make sure that our approach to diversity is hardwired in everything we do, make these targets even more ambitious and impactful.
“Everyone at the BBC has a stake in diversity, it’s a key purpose for us, and everyone who makes programmes for us commits to supporting our ambitions.”
The targets will apply to all genres of programming.
Same Difference 
8% LGBT? How do they know they already aren’t? Are they going to ask everyone? I hope most responses will end in “off”.
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You don’t need to be Alan Turing to calculate which demographic will benefit from this affirmative action quota. Gay people in the media? How novel… Without wishing to stray into “gay mafia” rhetoric, LGBT are already well represented in The Arts/media and have their own cultural/economic networks. Disabled people face far more considerable practical, societal and economic barriers. There are already many LGB on mic/in front of the camera and a small but growing number of Trans actors/pundits. I can’t name a single disabled person presenting a prime time chat show or hosting their own radio 1 slot. More (race/gender/sexuality/cultural) diversity is good but lumping disability in with LGBT seems rather odd to me.
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Remember Pete and Dud and the one-legged Tarzan?
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There’s Strome Tuulis who was in New Tricks and a couple of other things, and there’s a dispabled reporter for BBC South East.
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