Surprise! LGBT people exist!
March 6, 2017
In the Feb. 24 episode of the Disney XD cartoon “Star vs. the Forces of Evil,” the network aired its first—and second—ever same-sex kiss. Naturally, when conservatives heard about this, they dusted off their pitchforks and torches.
The episode had a scene in which the main characters go to a concert. During one of the songs, everyone in the audience kisses their significant others. In a very brief pan around of the camera, two men can be seen kissing, and then a second same-sex couple is shown kissing when the camera zooms out to show the crowd.
This win was followed shortly after by another with a March 1 statement from Bill Condon, director of Disney’s live-action “Beauty and the Beast,” that alluded to Gaston’s sidekick LeFou being the first openly gay character. Condon later said he may have “overstated” LeFou’s sexuality, according to a March 3 TIME article.
“Star vs. the Forces of Evil” marked same-sex kiss for Disney, but not the first same-sex couple. For one of its final episodes, Disney’s “Good Luck Charlie” introduced a character who had lesbian moms and caused a ruckus.
In response to both the “Star vs. the Forces of Evils” and “Good Luck Charlie,” One Million Moms—an online project of the conservative nonprofit American Family Association—has started petitions and taken pledges not to support the network and its “agenda.”
One Million Moms stated in a March 1 open letter to Disney in response to the same-sex kisses on “Star vs. the Forces of Evil” that, “Issues of this nature are being introduced too early and too soon, and it is becoming extremely common and unnecessary. Disney has decided to be politically correct versus providing family-friendly entertainment.”
The letter also briefly outlined concerns about LeFou’s sexuality in “Beauty and the Beast.”
The group’s attitude toward both of the shows is more than troubling; it is intolerant, ignorant and closed-minded. The goal of the group is to protect children from bad influences like immorality, vulgarity, violence and profanity depicted in the media, according to One Million Moms’ website, but these same-sex couples do not fall under any of those labels.
The group’s claims show no forethought or consideration for all the gay people who live in the real world and have families. If it’s too early for children to be introduced to a nice lesbian couple in a brief scene in one episode of a show, then what about all the real life gay people to whom children are going to be introduced?
These responses are nothing more than One Million Moms trying to push its own homophobic agenda. If members think that keeping gay people off TV and out of movies will stop gay people from existing, they are delusional and need some serious help.
When Disney announced that it would be introducing the lesbian couple on “Good Luck Charlie” six months before the episode aired, One Million Moms started a petition and email-writing campaign that, according to the group, included thousands of emails. The emails urged Disney not to air the episode with the couple, but Disney thankfully did not listen.
The group also called for a boycott of Nickelodeon and its “The Loud House” cartoon when it announced the July 20, 2016, episode would reveal that one of the kids has two dads. The group also called for this network not to air the episode, and once again, they were ignored.
So One Million Moms, if you think Disney cares about your petition or needs the views of the 35,824 people who have signed it, you have severely overestimated your importance and influence.