How come there aren't a lot of lesbian actresses and gay actors out there ?

Isn’t Anderson Cooper gay. But I guess by media you are talking about tv shows and other entertainment. A lot of tv shows are trying to appeal to a wide audience, so thats why you see a smaller amount of shows with homosexuals as characters.
Edit: Oh, I confused gay actors with actors playing gay characters. oh well my bad

Actually, there are quite a bit.

(this is just a list of characters)

Ian McKellan, Stephen Fry…

There are probably a lot more than you think. Here is a web site that lists over 700 celebrities in the GLBT community. Think about it; do you know the sex/gender status of every celebrity? I don’t know about today, but in the past, there have been plenty that never came out publicly.

And there are several more possible reasons. I have no idea what percentage of the population is part of the GLBT class, but I’d venture a guess that it is a lower number than those that are straight. Then there is the sub-set of actors to all other careers.

As for people who portray a GLBT character in a movie or television show, including porn, it doesn’t mean that they are, and vice-versa. I thought that Eric McCormack from Will & Grace was gay until I read somewhere that he wasn’t. I bet that there are others that thought the same.

You want to try watching Bristish soaps they are full of gay people some represented well others not so well!

How do you know that there aren’t? Maybe your gaydar needs adjustment.

I was under the impression that there were quite a bit. Unless you mean openly gay people and movie themes? Compared to openly “straight” celebrities and movie themes ..no there aren’t. But it’s getting better and at a higher rate :)
I agree with @sakura ..british tv shows/movies have way more openly gay actors/actresses.
I think there are tons of gay actors and actresses that aren’t “out” ..but that’s different.

(Edit) Oh sorry, I didn’t really answer why… the main simplest reason is because the media (more particularly those that own the media) still see homosexuality as taboo…especially in north america.

How would we know unless you keep up with all the celebrity talk? I don’t keep up so unless they started putting their sexual preferences beside each name, I’d never know.

Why make such an issue of someone’s sexuality anyway? One is not defined by one’s sexuality.
And what @faye said.
And how do you know if they’re gay or not? Theyre acting, not sitting around talking about their sex lives.

No, there really isn’t. There’s a lot more gay men than gay women, though. Most are afraid to come out because they don’t want to get typecast as “the gay character” which is always a supporting character, often with only a couple lines, never the lead.
Many porn actors aren’t really gay, they’re “gay for pay”.

@LKidKyle1985 Anderson Cooper doesn’t talk about his personal life. Everyone knows he is, but he isn’t actually “out” (or “in”, since he just has a policy of “I can neither confirm nor deny that” on everything).

Because most people aren’t understanding about that stuff and so it could put their life in danger if they told people.