The number of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender characters in films released by the seven major Hollywood studios held steady in 2015, but many were included only to be the butt of a joke and an overwhelming majority of them were white or male, according to a new report by GLAAD, formerly known as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

While the overall percentage of such characters in films stayed the same, the advocacy group said in its fourth annual report that a closer look at the data revealed 2015 to have been a less inclusive year on the big screen by almost every other measure.

The number of female characters dropped while the number of males characters rose, it said, and the amount of racial diversity among L.G.B.T. characters fell sharply after making improvements the year before.

Those findings come amid criticism aimed at Hollywood over the lack of racial diversity in film that reached a boiling point earlier this year when no people of color were nominated in the acting categories of the Academy Awards for the second year in a row, spawning the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite.