The stupid thing about that Florida law is the way it's written excludes talking about any gender identity including being cisgender and and sexual orientation including hetrosexuality. I've heard stories of teachers maliciously complying by referring to all students as they, all mums/dads as parents and wife/husband etc as partner.
At a committee meeting a fellow lawmaker in Florida asked the people who made the law how anyone can refer to Martha Washington in school? She's only famous/ history-book-worthy of mention as the wife of the first President, so that would obviously show their sexual orientation, and be banned by the law. The lawmaker advocating for the law literally had no answer. I love the creative ways teachers are trying to comply with this law. They're complying with it better than the cis het centered-teachers are.
So, The creator of Adventure Time didn't get "cold feet," the network threatened to cut content and evidently did. One of Pendleton Ward's comments to the voice actors when trying to understand the character's motivations was, "You know they dated, right?" Like, this was actively acknowledged in the writing room. But ultimately, it's up to the network how direct they can make it and what gets released.
Oh man remember the ambiguous hand holding at the end of Legend of Korra? The producers did that show so wrong. First just giving it only one season because no one wants to see avatar with an adolescent girl as the main character. Second finding out they were wrong and now the writers need to crank out more seasons pronto. Third not letting the writers make Korra explicitly gay and having to hint at her closeness to Asami. And fourth only begrudgingly allowing them to make the final season, refusing to air it till there was pushback from fans, and not promoting it when they did finally air it.
@@Andrea-hw7xf They did LoK so dirty. And premiering seasons exclusively online instead of during a tv spot. Goes in my "forever salty about it" folder
@@GosterMonster526 I kinda love how the follow-up comics, freed from studio oversight, literally had them kiss on the second page. Then in the two Avatar Kyoshi novels they've put out they're even more overt about her being bi (her girlfriend kicks ass).
Have you seen the Distant Lands episode with PB and Marci? I randomly found this DVD in some stuff my roommate got from a trailer she helped clean out and watched it and... there's an entire episode with PB and Marci explicitly back together and happy.
Also, regarding Spongebob, the creator Stephen Hillenburg specified that he intended SpongeBob to be Asexual, but Nickelodeon wanted to do something for Pride Month, and I guess cut off the "A" from LGBTQIA+
the funny thing is that Spongebob IS ace by his own admission, as he states in an episode (i *think* the one where the ocean-dwelling characters are ragging on Sandy for being a landlubber) that since he is a (sea)sponge, he reproduces by budding. the little square dude is ace af, canonically, biologically...
In the claymation movie "ParaNorman", the main character's older sister has a crush on his friend's older brother. She is the typical bratty girly sister, he is the typicla dopey buff jock. The entire movie she tries to make moves on him and cling to him during scary moments, and he is blissfully unaware of her advances, much to her annoyance. At the end of the movie after peace is restored, the sister asks the jock out to a movie, trying to form a date. The jock agrees and invites his *boyfriend,* whom he said is a chick flick enthusiast The movie came out in the late 2000s or early 2010s I think, it was pretty unexpected and while I'm sure it was supposed to be a punchline that the very masc man has a bf so the sister's advances meant nothing, but it was still shown in a quite neutral light (from my perspective when I watched it as a kid
I also love that it she didn’t get angry about it or that his sexuality was the joke. She was just disappointed that she never had a chance but at least they can still be friends
At the time I thought while it was cool, it was a bit of a cop-out that it's just a throwaway line at the end of the movie. However as an adult I really appreciate gay characters being allowed to just exist and be a part of a story without there needing to be a focus on their sexuality or them being in a relationship. That's why so much gay rep is so bad. Instead of seeing two minor gay characters have a performative kiss, I'd rather see one major gay character just live their life!
I first watched that movie with my brother and two of my friends, and I remember all of us laughing at the scene. I can't be sure why the others were laughing, but I remember simply finding it funny that the girl didn't have any chance with him, and not the fact that he's gay.
Its especially awesome because he isn't like this ultra feminine guy like most rep was at the time, he was a dude bro. Nice way to say anyone can be gay.
In Canada we had a children’s show called Mr Dress-Up. From 1967 to the late 80’s there was a character/puppet named Casey. The creator specifically gave a puppet a gender neutral name and never gave the puppet a gender because they wanted children to have the friend they wanted. If you wanted Casey to be a boy he was a boy … if you thought of Casey as a girl … she was a girl.
I love adults think kids can take on board "My dad created me a boyfriend that was a cream puff" but they are completely unable to understand and accept "I'm a girl that has a cute vampire girlfriend". I also loved Mr Ratman's wedding in Arthur, it was so wholesome and lovely.
The one thing I get disappointed about is that every time a character claims to be disinterested in the “opposite” gender, they are automatically assumed to then be gay. Leaving all us aces who want to see ourselves in that same character feeling like we’re “stealing” representation if we say maybe they’re asexual instead. I’ve seen it with Elsa as well as Isabella from Encanto. If we could get ACTUAL representation instead of coding, then maybe both sides wouldn’t feel so cheated by the other (when we really need to gang up, not feel divided)
For whatever its worth, Im fully team Elsa is ace. partly from the line in into the unknown "Im spoken for I fear/everyone I've ever loved is here within these walls". Not open romantically, all her love is for her family and friends. And then the voice she "cant go out with because she's spoken for" ends up being herself /her destiny.
@@Dianwhy you know, when I first saw Frozen 2 I wanted the voice to be Elsa's future girlfriend so bad, and was very disappointed but not at all surprised to see it wasn't the case. But I really like your way of seeing thing and it makes more sense. (And since around/ace are soooo under represented I wouldn't be too disappointed to see my dream of Elsa with a hot summer powered women crush, if it is for a good cause lol)
I'm gay but I am with the aces on the frustration at the lack of ace representation, as well as the overwheling amount of needless badly written stright romantic B plots. It seems like on tv a girl and a boy cant just be normal friends and there is so much painful acting with 0 chemistry. There is supposed to be an ace character in dead end : paranormal park but they canceled it so I don't know if we are going to get to see it because shes in the middle of her realising it plotline.
Fun fact Lilith Clawthorne *is* canonically aro-ace. It just like doesn't come up in the show rlly but there is even an audio clip of Lilith's voice-actress reading an in-character letter from Lilith to Hooty abt how she has no interest in pursuing a romantic relationship w/ anyone. I think it was revealed via one of the charity streams the team did. Anyways, it's like mentioned in her trivia on the wiki & everything. Also yea hopefully as there has been more representation in kids media in general that'll also extend to more aro-ace spectrum characters.
When I was a little girl, I wore a Blue, Ben Ten backpack to primary school. And all the other kids called me gay and bullied me because I didn't have a pink, princess backpack like the other girls. When I got to secondary school, girls from my friend group would read BL and fetishize gay men. And when I got to college, I thought I was promiscuous bc I thought had a crush on every guy I met, not knowing that the feelings were completely platonic because it's all the same to me. Y'know cuz I'm gay. Kids can be SO CRUEL, and CONFUSED when they aren't educated about LGBTQIA+ people. And they can end up hurting the people around them or themselves because they don't know any better or someone had implanted bigoted beliefs onto them first. I WISH someone had educated me on these matters. I would have saved me so much confusion, and made me a kinder, more understanding person when I was younger.
Thank you for sharing your experiences. Just a clarifying question: the girls who were reading BL: did they fetishize real boys and men around them? Or just fictional ones in BL and media? I find people's experiences in these topics so interesting. I'm in my mid-thirties, and my experiences were more like Jessica's than yours. Fanfiction/online culture was rampant, but much like queer stuff -no one talked about it in public, even amongst friends. EVER!
@@emmablake1913 now that you asked, oh i dont really know where to start. I remember they were shipping male Kpop idols, and were really into BL and read them in public. People online were shipping youtubers and fangirling over public display of male affection irl. It was very weird. Not as in, shipping stuff is bad. I mean I also ship fictional characters, or sometimes I think real people have a lot of chemistry. But some thing tells me my peers were not seeing it in the same way that I was. Like, they were seeing gay people or gay interactions as commodity and not narratives of queer people falling in love. Like how straight men see lesbians in porn. I don't know, i think its a very interesting topic and i would love to talk to you more about it.
As a queer person that is deep into BL, honestly, the majority of people into it are in the lgbt+ community. There is nothing fetishizing or wrong about a fictional couple. Especially in chinese BL where anti-fujoshi culture has very racist undertones.
It took Disney _forever_ to get on the right side of this fight, but they’re hosting the largest annual LGBTQ+ conference as a massive F-U to the Don’t Say Gay Bill. Love to see it.
In The Mitchells vs The Machines the main character is openly queer, she wears a rainbow badge and at the end her mum asks if she's "official with Jade" and if she'll be bringing her home for Thanksgiving. It's a really great movie. Also I hope you cover books next! It's amazing to me that when I wrote my thesis on LGBT YA there was not much to cover, but now you could easily do a whole video even just on picture books.
The Mitchells Vs. the Machines was so much fun! I loved every bit of it. And it's just a tiny moment of representation at the end, but it's also treated as completely normal by all the characters, and the movie also doesn't try to brush over it. I thought it worked very well.
Wow. Core memory unlocked of myself as a young teen desperately seeking out any gay YA book I could find. I grew up around all types of LGBTQ+ people, so the concept wasn't foreign to me, but they were adults. I craved stories of people in my age group finding love or coming out or anything, really. Stories that didn't end tragically with at least one lesbian dying due to drug overdose. -_-
The problem is that there are way too many parents out there who think that cultivating an egalitarian, accepting, inclusive attitude in children _is_ corrupting their mind. They want their child to be like them: authoritarian, non-accepting and exclusive. These, of course, are the people who don't want children to be exposed to people who are different from them.
Honestly one of the best shows in terms of a lot of diversity. Racial/ethnic diversity, queer diversity (not only in terms of sexuality but also gender), mental health and the different ways of dealing with traumas, women empowerment, so many personalities, … every kids can feel represented somehow
"You absolutely do matter. You are wonderful. You DO belong". Boy, was that like a kick in the feels. I was totally fine and then almost started crying. I wish all kids were told this. Thank you for making these videos.
I just need to add my voice to the chorus singing the praises of She-Ra! The creator ND Stevenson is bigender transmasculine, and queer. The series is utterly delightful, and more or less all the characters are queer in some way. The ending is the most unapologetic celebration of lesbian love I have ever seen, I think. Rebecca Sugar is non-binary too, in addition to being bisexual, and I find Steven Universe works very well as an exploration of non-binary identity and relationship to one's own body. P.S. while Elsa's story does work for any type of queerness, my headcanon is that she is aro/ace, and I am heavily invested in that story. I just want her to ride off into the sunset on her own white horse, and live happily ever after with her elemental friends (and her familial loves). Maybe a conversation with someone about how she doesn't really have those kinds of feelings. Please. Thank you.
+1 to everything you said, especially the aro/ace note as an aro/ace myself!! I was very late in watching Frozen 2 as a full movie, so I watched Elsa's big song early on with no context and felt 100% it was about being queer
Eh, They’re good for queer rep but personally I don’t find either to be particularly great shows, especially She-ra. Mostly just the writing issues I have with it. That’s just me though (Agree with the stuff regrading Elsa though! We need more Aromatic/Asexual/Aro-Ace rep in media)
I think that better queer representation in the media would definitely have helped me when I was young - I thought that liking girls meant I was 'broken' for so long. Thank you for making this video Jessica, I really enjoyed it. I hope your jaw feels better soon too :)
The other thing I did with my kids was to explain all the different reasons X is in a wheelchair etcetera. I would give lectures about responsible behavior with service dogs very loudly so as to educate everyone in range. I adore doing that. I learned it from my grandmother who would sit right next to the barrier between white and black sections at the cafeteria and loudly explain why we were NOT different from those patrons and how much she wished folx would learn that or at least be Christian and treat everyone the way they wish to be treated.
@@helenl3193 I agree. She also used to make up stories about why folx were doing idiotic things in public. Ex: Oh honey, you don’t know. Maybe his wife just called to tell him to come to the hospital because their baby is coming.
That's so great - it's so important for us to remember that we don't know what another person's context/story is, and we shouldn't judge people solely based on appearances. Sure you can make judgement calls for your own safety when necessary - this person appears violent so I'm going to disengage/deescalate if I can. But you shouldn't extend that to this person is clearly always violent/unstable, etc. You can't truly know a person from a single instance/interaction, we all have bad days and make mistakes we can learn from. Kudos to your grandmother, and to you for following in her steps :)
@@helenl3193 Thank you! I talk about her to encourage more folx to the behavior. I also give out plastic coins with various neutral messages (pawsome, gold star, kindness coin) to folx as much as I can. I tell them to keep one in their pocket to remind them not everyone is a Karen, that it’s a tangible thank you and I often give them another to give to someone else.
I feel The Dragon Prince (the most recent series at least) definitely deserves a mention with Amaya and Jenai (human and an elf) trying to rebuild a society. Their relationship is part of their storyline but not the fact that they are lesbians, the other characters are more concerned that the humans and elves don't understand each others cultures and Amaya and Jenai are proving that humans and elves can live and rebuild together. Their relationship is just sooo wholesome and I adore them! ❤
Yes! There's also a trans character, although sadly he's dating the most ANNOYING girl ever who does NOT deserve him. I also like that Callum and Ezran come from a blended family and Ezran is biracial, although obviously that's separate from queer representation.
You're right that most kid's shows that have LGBTQ themes show wlw couples, but one that has great queer male representation is Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts! At first, Kipo flirts with her friend Benson, but he quickly comes out as gay to her and she's super accepting and it's just a really sweet scene. Then he gets a boyfriend later in the show and it's so wholesome and adorable!
@@shawnbehrens2294 I mean, he straight up says the words "I'm gay.", explicitely flirts with a guy, and on screen kisses him. In what way is that not a gay dude?
@@theviewer6889 well 1stly slow down there mater, that did not happen.. there fore done. You should know that this channel is run by a pair of Iesbians. So I don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish here.
@green mayo man🇺🇦 Yes, there was supposed to be more explicit flirting and quick kiss between the two girls as confirmed by both the Disney creator Andrea Goh, the Turning Red story board, and Pixar's letter to Disney in march 2022 that mentioned lgbt content had been forcibly removed from that specific film among others.
I loved this video. Jessica’s excitement for the TV shows was so endearing. If she can get that giddy over those storylines, just think what joy children get out of it!
@@jessicaoutofthecloset thank you so much for that! I have so many kids who have adopted me, because their family didn't accept them... Florida, and the 22 states following their example... completely breaking my heart. The reptile, and now fish worlds, are up in arms over FWC (Fish & Wildlife Commission) going completely authoritarian and destroying businesses in Florida (and disrupting the aquarium hobby AND the reptile hobby across the US, since over 60% of the animals have been bred in Florida for decades) and the Holy Thursday Massacre. When I ask if they spoke out against the "Don't say gay" law, I get a whole lot of "what do queers have to do with this?" They truly don't grasp that allowing one demographic (LGBTQ+) to be targeted and villainized makes it easier for another demographic (herpetologists, and now ichthyologists) to be targeted. I try to explain it, but I don't seem to be very persuasive....
I'm a bi woman in my early 30s and I met my girlfriend through The Owl House fandom, so I was really excited to hear you talk about that show :) Two shows that weren't mentioned, but were central to my coming out journey, are The Legend of Korra and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. The representation in The Legend of Korra is less overt than shows which have come after it (Korra and her love interest Asami held hands but didn't kiss) but was groundbreaking at the time and the creators made statements confirming that the two of them were in a romantic relationship. Then, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power ended with a lesbian kiss that literally saved the world and that moment is what led to me realizing I was bi and coming out two months later
She-Ra is the best show for older kids (and adults), not just because of its representation (main character kisses her love interest in the end), but the depth of its plot and character development. The character arcs are amazing and there are many themes that are often neglected in children's shows (abandonment, forgiveness, insecure attachment, codependency). It was sad that you didn't mention this show - I strongly believe it is the highest quality and transparency queer animated show made for a younger audience. It's unapologetically queer and is 'mature' in that it doesn't rely purely on comic relief to maintain the viewes' attention (like Owl House often does). It is a must-watch for every queer adult who never got to have a queer childhood. I hope it will speak to you all on a personal level.
the autistic joy i felt when u mentioned The Owl House is aaa (it’s definitely a SpIn of mine and i’ve spent so much time analyzing the queerness and disability in the show, even wrote a paper for my undergrad classes on cripping fantasy with TOH as a case study) TOH spoilers below- I want to add that not only is the main character, Luz, canonically a neurodivergent GNC bisexual Afro-latina in a relationship with a girl (Amity, who’s lesbian and adorable and they hide pride flags regularly in the background, rewatch the scene where they ask eachother out, so cute), but her mentor, Eda, is also bi and has a nonbinary romantic interest. (There’s also a ton of background characters, ie gay dads and a side character’s romantic interest being nonbinary, and characters confirmed by the creators outside of the plot like Lilith being aroace.) In season 3 episode 1, Luz comes out to her mom with a powerpoint saying “hi i’m bi” and her mom is fully loving and accepting, pulling her and Amity into a hug. Her mom can later be seen having done extensive research into queerness, which is such good representation of a positive coming out process that kids and their parents should be seeing on screen :) And that’s not even getting into how queerness is central to the show’s themes beyond representation of relationships but also the whole plot and message is incredibly (neuro)queer in scope
There is also more enby representation than Raine [Season 3 Spoilers] There is, for example that one person with their nails painted like the enby flag. And also [Spoiler for S3 E3] In one of the last scenes, Luz entire outfit is in the colors of the non-binary flag.
When I was a kid, I loved watching Sailor Moon in the afternoon. And Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Saturn had this wonderful relationship that was just accepted and never questioned. Now, as a mother myself, my todler is obsessed with a show called "Gecko's garage", featuring a family of mommy bus, baby bus and mama recycling, which is absolutely adorable! ❤
You mean Sailor Uranus &Neptunus? Saturn also had a relationship with Pluto but its pretty mysterious as both represent underworld (&linked to Chibi Moon). Jupiter as strong as Mars who closer to Mercury
I'm hopping on the She-Ra love train Never have I seen such a great love letter to queerness in one animated show before. Literally everyone is not straight and is amazing. The world and art design draws you in so well and you can't stop watching. I binged all the seasons in less than two months and I have 0 regrets. Truly a must watch for all. If my gay wasn't already awakened this would've done it for me as a kid.
totally random, but you are one of the few channels on youtube i watch regularly that i cannot watch at 2x speed i realize that’s not a normal compliment, but my ADHD brain really appreciates the way you speak also thank you for covering queer topics, i would have never been able to learn about it on my own!
As someone who has an Elsa avatar everywhere I can have one since 2013, who came out as Trans in 2013, AND A Lesbian. You are speaking directly to me on all this Elsa content. I hate that you're right that she won't actually get to "come out" for us as she should, but ...we know. We know. Also surprised you didn't touch on She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (Catradora, Scorfuma). Really good video. we need more like this.
I almost choked on my bread lol. I wasn't expecting my country to be called out like that. But yes as a Turkish person, from a country that makes openly lgbtq plus films, we became one that chooses them as a target because mr. Tyranny has run out of his collection of imaginary enemies
I can just imagine the freak out of an unenlightened mother upon seeing little Rubert with his 2 beautiful moms, 1 obviously biracial and the other wearing hearing aids , having hands that flop and using a mobility aide. Oh the horror. Please note the sarcasm. You have a beautiful family
Jessica, I REALLY appreciated and enjoyed this video even though I am 74 and have never before even heard of these children’s programs! Quite possibly because I was “lost” in the countryside of Northern Germany during the years you speak of. Thank you for introducing me to a whole new world!
I wish we had more representation growing up. My first real exposure at all to positivevLGBT+ rep was Willow and Tara in Buffy. I was raised believing it was sinful, so I was so confused about why I was cheering for this couple so much. Before I figured it out I went through a long drought of seeing any rep. I also went through some personal and physical things that kept me from dating or exploring my own identity at the same time. Then about 4 years ago my best friend shook up my favorite show forever. She told me my favorite character in my favorite show was bisexual and in love with her favorite character, his best friend. I didn't believe her, but she said pick any scene with the two and watch with an open mind. I instantly knew Dean Winchester was bi, canon or not. This led to me meeting a whole new group of friends in the Supernatural fandom. I began to really explore my beliefs, and came to realize that God loves gay people is not contrary to my beliefs. I became an ally. Then at 35 years old I finally realized that I am bisexual too. Without representation I may never have accepted it. I had made a million excuses when I had liked a female character. The idea of crush never crossed my mind. So glad kids are being shown positive rep much earlier now.
American here! I always liked TJ and Cyrus from the Disney show "Andi Mack." It's kind of hard to watch the entire series legally even stateside because one of the adult actors got into some legal trouble involving a minor (cop pretending to be a minor) and Disney yanked all the episodes with him in it from reruns, and edited and reshot some of the subsequent episodes to fully scrub him out. SPOILERS: I always liked the slow burn nature of the TJ and Cyrus subplot, and really felt like they were influencing each other for the better while still being able to stand on their own two feet as individuals. Cyrus comes out multiple times on the show to the support of his friends, even using the word 'gay' to describe himself when he comes out to another character, Jonah. TJ and Cyrus are just so sweet and wholesome and the Kira arc, while frustrating, really hit me in the feels. In the series finale, right before all the main kids either couple up with or say 'maybe someday' to their love interests, the whole crew sings Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" headed by TJ and Cyrus (the pitch correction on all actors isn't the best and even the obviously good singers could've benefitted from more collaboration behind the scenes, but it was still adorable). TJ and Cyrus never kiss in the series (unlike basically every major character with an opposite gender love interest) and I'm still a bit salty about that, but they're in middle school, and the hand-hold was so sweet I still love it almost four years later so I'm not that upset. :)
Craig of the creek just had one of the main characters reveal her first crush and it turns out she likes another girl :) it's a super cute arc about her coming out and everyone is really supportive. There's also plenty of other queer characters in the show
Okay, you missed A LOT with this one. Let's start with a few corrections: - Spongebob isn't gay, he's asexual. The creator of the show explicitly talked about it in a interview many years ago and in that tweet Nick was just acknowledging his asexuality (and I think is great to reaffirm aces are part of the community too). - The "first gay Disney character" is something said in almost every animated Disney movie. It happened with the shop and sauna owner in Frozen, with the two women and the baby in Finding Dory... Now let's go to the history behind the already talked-about characters: Nick is now known for its representation in The Loud house, which is great, but it was only possible because years before "Avatar: The legend of Korra" existed. (Spoiler alert) This series ended with Korra (main character) and Asami holding hands and travelling together through a portal, implying a romantic attraction and relationship between the two of them. It's also good to know that the two of them had previously dated and felt attracted to a guy, which implies them being bisexual instead of lesbians. Regardless of the label, despite fans and the show's crew wanting the ship to be canon, Nick kept pushing against it and only allowed brief hints with the biggest one being at the end of the whole series. In Disney, before The owl house came Gravity Falls. There's plenty of evidence submitted by Alex Hirsch, creator of the show and current partner of Dana Terrance (something that has a great impact in TOH), on how much Disney pushed against queer representation in the show, to the point in which the only queer couple allowed to exist in the entire show was the two cops, who were allowed to demonstrate their romantic love for each other just in the last episode of the show. Now other queer shows made for kids: In Cartoon Network we can find Clarence (one of the main characters has two moms, a Cottage-gore femme and a butch one, the latter seeming to be the biological mother of the kid) and Craig of the creek (there are several episodes that talked about one of the main characters having feelings towards another girl and there's also an enby kid) From DreamWorks (which seem to be the best one on this matter in my opinion) we can find She-Ra and the princesses of power (full of queer representation, mostly sapphics and a non binary/gender fluid character) and Kipo and the age of wonderbeasts (a coming out scene made completely natural which then develops into a cute mlm couple, and also includes a enby side character) Last but not least there's Netflix's Dead End: Paranormal park. This show has been recently cancelled and wasn't promoted as much as it should. SPOILER ALERT! The two main characters are a gay, trans, Jewish teen boy and an autistic, (then discovered) bisexual, Indian teen girl. In the show there's also a tomboy demon, a seemingly straight Muslim girl and another gay guy
The Owl House having a they/them nonbinary character that wasn't like, an alien or a shapeshifter was a really big deal for me. Also, I can't believe She-Ra wasn't mentioned here!! If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it!
22:36 Apparently this is meant to increase parental control in their children's education, and yet from what I've heard of it, a parent can go in and say "Please support my LGBT+ child" and they can't? How is that giving parents control?
I loved Strange World! I actually saw quite a lot of promo for it, and went to see it in the cinema, but I have heard a lot of other people anecdotally say they didn't see a lot of promo and also had no idea it was coming out! It will be interesting to see in the future how this continues. I'd say I saw about the same amount as for other recent non-musical Disney movies, if not more.
@@jessicaoutofthecloset The story of how I found out about Strange World: through seeing the thumbnail for a video warning people about this "woke trash" made by none other than Ben Shapiro. I immediately decided that I was going to watch that movie ;)
I also recommend she-ra: princesses of power to everyone. Theres so many lgbt identities in the show, its become my go-to comfort cartoon when i just wanna see some gay shit.
Another US children’s show that really made great strides in LGBTQ+ rep was Andi Mack! Andi’s friend Cyrus comes out as gay (I’m pretty sure the first Disney Channel character to do so in a show?), and they both have to navigate what it’s like to crush on the same person. Cyrus later befriends a jock named TJ, and at the end of the series they both confess their feelings and hold hands. 🥺 it’s very wholesome! ❤
Yes cyrus was so awesome and Cyrus and tj is just such a cute ship. I also loved that he’s Jewish because I’m also queer and Jewish and Cyrus was, to my best recollection, the first openly queer character I saw on tv and so having my first queer character also be Jewish just looking back is so special. Also the scene where he came out to jonah was just so great it was funny and sweet and Jewish all at once
It's also good for kids to see representation of disabled people so they have the vocabulary to explain what they're going through. I just thought I was lazy and struggled with my parents thinking I wouldn't do things as opposed to being unable to do something. Until they let me get a boys haircut the summer before fifth grade I cried in pain every morning pushing past my pain levels trying to reach up high enough to brush my hair and ultimately needing someone to do it for me. I was an adult before they believed me and I had the tools to speak up about my neurological condition.
She-ra and the Princesses of Power (netflix) and The Dragon Prince (netflix) also come to mind in terms of representation! and The Dragon Prince has a character who signs!
My favourite representative kids movie is ‘’The Mitchells Versus The Machines’’ :) The main character, Katie, has a pride badge and a massive crush on a girl! The main focus is on family, but it helped me introduce to my little brother (who is 7 years younger) the concept of being a woman that likes a woman, and he says we’re like the siblings in it!
I love The Owl House and Steven Universe as well! Steven has so many mature themes, in addition to its LGBTQ representation. It shows diversity in body types, families (single parents, blended families), different ethnicities, as well as tackling mental health awareness. Also want to give a low key shout out to Sailor Moon for bringing us an iconic female couple (although censored internationally haha). It wasn't completely unproblematic, but even censored it was really clear there was something between Neptune and Uranus 😂 Edited to add: Definitely not a children's show but Arcane is also great in this department
One of my favorite examples is Lyra and Bonbon in MLP:FiM. They started as literal background characters who were always next to each other because their colors complemented, which led to fan speculation, which led to an episode where their "very special friendship" (e.g. censor-safe lesbianism) was made part of the b-plot, which culminated in half a second in the series finale where you can see announcement of them getting married in a newspaper. These gay ponies had a metacontextual friends-to-lovers arc
We do not talk enough about SHE-RA AND PRINCESS OF POWER Perfect re-boot of 80's cartoon!!! No matter how old you are - watch it!! It was created by Queer Director and group.
I knew I wasn't a girl when I was in daycare. I obviously didn't have the proper words for it but I told my parents and always felt uncomfortable with people outside of my family treating me in a very gendered way. Our parents didn't care they never put any gender roles on us and we were just allowed to do what suited us and made us happy. It was more about it being age appropriate if anything. Media did nothing to make me queer and I hate how some people still seem to believe media has that kind of power
I love The Owl House!! It has so much representation! Willow has two dads, Raine Whispers is non binary and uses they/them pronouns and they date Eda the Owl Lady, Vee is some form of queer since she's shown to have a crush on Masha who's non binary, the titan himself is genderqueer refering to himself as both King and Queen, and if we count the reveals from Dana Terrace on streams, Lilith is aro ace. Sure that is how she is on screen as well, but the topic of romance and sexuality doesn't really come up in her story arc so it was officially confirmed in a letter that Dana played in a stream.
The show Arthur did feature a gay relationship in season 22 where Arthur's teacher Mr Ratburn marries his male partner in an episode. Jane Lynch was also part of the episode. (You do mention Arthur, but not Mr Ratburn)
Another (and super underrated show) is kipo and the age of wonderbeasts! Benson is gay and eventually ends up dating another boy in the series. Theres a scene early on in the show where Benson comes out to Kipo after she says has a crush on him, theres no bad feelings at all from kipo & they stay close friends
Sailor Moon, She-Ra, Korra, and Bob's Burgers, Xena (yes it was for kids AND adults. But it went beyond Xena and Gabrielle. They had a drag queen win Miss Known World), Peppermint Patty and Marcie, Yuri on Ice, Utena, Ranma 1/2, Princess Knight, Heart stopper. I know Disney is popular but I honestly don't understand how missed such heavy hitters as these.
Shego AND HER BROTHERS all got hit with that rainbow meteor, and all her brothers are ALSO super queer-coded! Also, when Shego turns good for a day and becomes a substitute teacher at the school, the principal crushes on her hard and she's super into... their nice friendship. When she and Drakken were pushed toward each other in a romantic gesture (literally tied together with a flower between them), they both leaned away from each other and gave that awkward "we're besties, not lovers" look.
I remember being so happy that, in one of my favorite childhood shows, The Loud House, one of the sisters has her own episode where she's crushing on someone named "Sam". It was initially suggested that the crush was a guy, but in the end they turned out to be a girl
Some kids maybe raised by a mother and a father, two mothers or fathers, single parents, raised by other relatives, guardian, ones with no parental figures and or chosen families. Every family is different and is very beautiful ❤
The final nail in the coffin for me coming out as trans was watching the Netflix revisit special of Rocko’s Modern Life. In the special Rocko and friends find that Rocko’s neighbor’s son has come out as trans and is going by Rachel now. The friends are happy for her and move along with the story. There’s even a point where we find her mother is super supportive, her father not so much but it turns out he’s not even upset she’s trans, he’s just overwhelmed by all the changes happening in quick succession around him and once he does, eventually, calm down he does accept his daughter. I cried and the very next day I came out to my wife. First time I ever said, “I’m Trans” out loud.
My son loved Stephen Universe when he was younger (still does). One day he asked me to watch the movie with him,.I'd never watched an episode. I was actually blown away by it. It was beautiful.
I feel like I need to introduce anyone who didn’t already know about it to Dead End: Paranormal Park. It aired on Netflix and was cancelled after two seasons but it’s extremely and openly queer. The main characters are a gay Jewish trans guy and a bi south Asian girl with social anxiety who is heavily implied to be on the spectrum. I legit cried at some of the scenes (especially the coming out ones) because they hit so close to home and it’s overall just a great show. Sorry if this was kinda long lol I just really love this show and having several characters explicitly state that they are part of an identity that I also share meant so much to me. 💜💜
The Netflix kids' show "Princess Power" has a character with two dads. It's actually really cute and they don't make a big deal out of it. But also: what about She-Ra and the princesses of power? This one could have its own video with the complex relationships and the very gay endgame (oh, catradora! my heart).
"The average age a child realizes they may not be straight is twelve years old" definitely checks out for me! That's when I started thinking, "Hey wait, I like boys, but I also like girls. That's not the norm, is it?"
There’s a LGBTQ+ icon in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s animation world…Bugs Bunny. He usually wore women’s clothing and makeup, plus he kissed a couple of male characters like Elmer Fudd. i enjoyed those cartoons as a kid. 😊 I knew Velma from “Scooby Doo” and Albus Dumbledore both are gay. Excellent video as always! ❤
My niece and nephew love Lightyear because the film is the first time they've seen a family that looks like theirs on screen. This is why we need queer representation in kids films!
I’ve been watching adventure time since I was 4 or 5 My mom almost banned me from watching it when I came out as queer in 2022 And then the closet returned to me And then it crumbled around me in 2023 when my mom searched my phone
It's honestly pretty cute how she points out that she's going to mispronounce things, followed closely by mispronouncing Luz's name multiple times. Though to be fair, plenty of hearing folks who aren't familiar with Hispanic names pronounce it the exact same way, instead of like the word "loose" or "lose".
I recall my classmate came out to his mother, about the only person left on earth at that time, who didn't know his sexuality. She attacked him, clawed his face, punched him etc. That was the mid 90s and he was 16 years old. 😢
I'm a younger millennial, but I had my siblings SO recommend Steven Universe. Ya'll I cried like a baby through most of that show. I'm eternally grateful to this person for showing me that there is LGBTQ+ rep going on in our newer media. Next I'm onto the Owl House!
Avatar the legend of Korra is an interesting example, Korra and Asami are canonically queer, but the creators weren't allowed to explicitly explore that in the nickelodeon show, so they ended on a scene hinting towards their relationship and continued that plotline in the comic book released afterwards
Gravity falls had the WORST time with Disney over 2 side characters cops who were gay. I saw a post from one of the creators and the hoops he had to jump through just to get them to hug! Owl house did go hard with the queerness in "season" 3 but mainly because they were already cancelled. Disney then spread the 3 episodes of season 3 out over 6 months and did not advertise. (Their other seasons have over 12 episodes.) Side Note - no judgement on your pronunciation, I understood you perfectly! Just a helpful hint if you want it. Luz from Owl House is pronounced more like a nickname for Lucy. Sounds like Loose.
GUYS WE GOT ANOTHER ONE! Co-director of Luca, in honor of it playing in theaters again showed depictions of main character and main characters “friend” kissing and such
Did she not talk about Korra and Asami?? The show whose finale was not even aired and had to be watched on the network's website because of the gay ending? And they didn't even kiss! Truly paved the way for SU and all the others that came after it
Growing up I was very intrigued by Neptune and Uranus in sailor moon, and I had no prior knowledge about anything involving the LGBTQ+ community. I find it frustrating that the idea of "corrupting children" is used to judge people and push so many idiotic agendas out into the world. We see/read so many stories where the prince rescues the princess from the tower yada yada, and they kiss at the end, and no one bats an eye. Because that is seen as "normal", no children are corrupted, hence let the straights kiss in front of children. But if it were to be two same sex people in this duo, well, ready your pitchforks and torches!
Queer rep in kids shows is so good now compared to the 70s and 80s when I was growing up. Increasingly, there are queer characters where their queerness isn't lampshaded. It's just who they are, and there isn't a story line or plot to explain or negotiate it. Netflix has a good range of inclusive kid cartoons in particular. Kid shows are far more inclusive than adult stuff IMHO currently.
Oh, and if you enjoy cartoons with bright colours and singing and absolutely not suitable for children, then I highly recommend Hazbin Hotel. It is also a little bit gay.
Two of my favorite LGBT recent shows are Craig of the Creek and Dead End:Paranormal Park. The first one features at least three sapphic relationships including one from one of the main characters, many other gender non conforming and queer characters, non binary characters, a deaf character, and is very black and brown and also just a really cute good show. The other centers around a teenage gay trans boy and his best friend who is a bi autistic Indian girl and is also about a haunted park with ghosts and demons. They’re both so good and underrated. I want more queer adults to be watching them!
Spinelli is my favorite character from Recess. I wanted to be her, as a kid. 💖 Also, I'm surprised you didn’t mention Shera. Perhaps a video for another time? 🙂
GOODDDDDD what was missing is such a good adventure time episode i LOVE bubbline, and their relationship during the stakes ark UGHHHHHH THEYRE THE BEST
Those "protect the children" people are ridiculous. I have always expressed myself in a queer way before I even knew what that meant. My parents knew long before I did and I was six years old when I had my first queer crush. Six. For many kids, they're not introducing them to anything new and outside their experiences. But we all know they just hate LGBT folks.
another thing about Steven Universe, in the later episodes one of the side characters, Sadie, is revealed to be in a relationship with a non-binary character! it was just for an episode or two (im not really sure how many episodes they were featured in since i haven't watched the show in a while), but that representation was so refreshing and nice especially for a NB person such as myself
Luz is pronounced “lose” as in win:lose I stumbled across your channel this week and you are amazing ♪ It’s awesome to find people that are my flavor of humor/personality ♥︎
I remember reading a Rick Riordan book and wondering "is this character gay?" but knew ot was unlikely cuz I'd never seen a gay character in a children's story and then being so happy and surprised when I it was revealed they were. Also I was reading another one of his books with a trans character and I liked this character a lot and I was like, screw this other character I was shipping mc, I want the trans character to be the love interest. And they ended up being so. (It turned out my shipping radar had been dead wrong about the previous love interest)
The first time I can remember seeing an explicitly queer character in an animated film was in Paranorman, where Norman's older brother mentions his boyfriend at the end of the movie
Other children's cartoons featuring queer characters: She-ra (2018) and The Dragon Prince. Same sex couples show affection towards each other pretty openly and they are cute :3 And another animation, which I recommend, is Carmen Sendiago. This one hints at queer characters but personally I don't think that it is suttle at all ^^
Came here for this! It'd be great to hear Jessica's take on Dragon Prince in particular, since two of the protagonists actually have a deaf lesbian aunt who is a pretty major supporting character.
My little brother moved outta state for a job, and is in the same town as a friend from college. Friend became a movie theater manager, and got him in to see Strange World for free. They basically had the theater to themselves, and he texted me recommending it afterward. I saw it and loved it, but I guess Disney didn't wanna promote such a diverse movie. It's like they are ashamed of making it, which is confusing.
I headcanon dipper pines from gravity falls as transmasc :] theres an episode where hes insecure in his masculinity cause he listens to a "girly" pop band & goes through manliness trials run by minotaurs who have toxic masculinity but at the end of the episode he has to fight the "multi bear" (a bear with 7 heads) who also happens to love the same pop band so hes just like "mehh idc what they think" hen in another episode he drinks a serum to make his voice deeper after being teased by his friends AND I QUOTE "u dont think I'm a MALE MAN" (a MAIL lady walked by & mistook him for a colleague) Edit: also adding on, in 1 episode dipper & his twin sister swaped bodies & he seems really uncomfortable (she was too but that was due to outsude interaction from their uncle trying to give her the bords & the bees talk lmao)
Growing up in the 90s in a country with little to no representation, I had no idea that the reason I kept looking at women on the street or that my unnecessarily intense feelings for my best friends were simply me being a queer kid :) it took me years of confusion to even begin to understand that I wasn't weird or broken
THANK YOU for mentioning the Owl House. Favourite show of all time, the story is incredible and yes it has some of the best queer rep I've ever seen. Lumity set the bar not just queer relationships but romance writing in general, it's refreshing seeing the main relationship of the show become official only half way through the show and actually getting to see them functioning together as a couple. Also Eda being bi and previously being in a relationship with nonbinary character Raine who's they/them pronouns are always respected, and who Eda clearly still has feelings for. And while Luz and Amity's relationship is a realistic depiction of blossoming young love, it's nice to also have Eda and Raine as representation for older queer people as well. Eda's sister Lilith is also canonically aro/ace and while this has never been explicitly said in the show, Dana Terrace did confirm this in a live stream and she never seems interested in romantic relationships throughout the show. The show tells this really epic and surprisingly dark story and also has so many important and great characters who happen to be queer.
The stupid thing about that Florida law is the way it's written excludes talking about any gender identity including being cisgender and and sexual orientation including hetrosexuality. I've heard stories of teachers maliciously complying by referring to all students as they, all mums/dads as parents and wife/husband etc as partner.
At a committee meeting a fellow lawmaker in Florida asked the people who made the law how anyone can refer to Martha Washington in school? She's only famous/ history-book-worthy of mention as the wife of the first President, so that would obviously show their sexual orientation, and be banned by the law.
The lawmaker advocating for the law literally had no answer.
I love the creative ways teachers are trying to comply with this law. They're complying with it better than the cis het centered-teachers are.
@@sciencemama6801 Why not talk about her and skip this male president. Talking about him can‘t be good for children anyway.
Malicious compliance is the Best!!
I love this
you know it's meant to be selectively enforced
So, The creator of Adventure Time didn't get "cold feet," the network threatened to cut content and evidently did. One of Pendleton Ward's comments to the voice actors when trying to understand the character's motivations was, "You know they dated, right?" Like, this was actively acknowledged in the writing room. But ultimately, it's up to the network how direct they can make it and what gets released.
Oh man remember the ambiguous hand holding at the end of Legend of Korra? The producers did that show so wrong. First just giving it only one season because no one wants to see avatar with an adolescent girl as the main character. Second finding out they were wrong and now the writers need to crank out more seasons pronto. Third not letting the writers make Korra explicitly gay and having to hint at her closeness to Asami. And fourth only begrudgingly allowing them to make the final season, refusing to air it till there was pushback from fans, and not promoting it when they did finally air it.
@@Andrea-hw7xf They did LoK so dirty. And premiering seasons exclusively online instead of during a tv spot. Goes in my "forever salty about it" folder
@@GosterMonster526 I kinda love how the follow-up comics, freed from studio oversight, literally had them kiss on the second page. Then in the two Avatar Kyoshi novels they've put out they're even more overt about her being bi (her girlfriend kicks ass).
Have you seen the Distant Lands episode with PB and Marci? I randomly found this DVD in some stuff my roommate got from a trailer she helped clean out and watched it and... there's an entire episode with PB and Marci explicitly back together and happy.
Yeah, network wise Adventure Time crawled so Steven Universe and Owl House could run.
Also, regarding Spongebob, the creator Stephen Hillenburg specified that he intended SpongeBob to be Asexual, but Nickelodeon wanted to do something for Pride Month, and I guess cut off the "A" from LGBTQIA+
Yeah, I always assumed he was ace/aro. That makes more sense
Maybe he's homoromantic and still asexual? 🤷🤷🤷 aces can be gay and ace 🤷🤷🤷
the funny thing is that Spongebob IS ace by his own admission, as he states in an episode (i *think* the one where the ocean-dwelling characters are ragging on Sandy for being a landlubber) that since he is a (sea)sponge, he reproduces by budding. the little square dude is ace af, canonically, biologically...
this!
there is a dispute if A means Ace/Aro or Ally.
In the claymation movie "ParaNorman", the main character's older sister has a crush on his friend's older brother. She is the typical bratty girly sister, he is the typicla dopey buff jock. The entire movie she tries to make moves on him and cling to him during scary moments, and he is blissfully unaware of her advances, much to her annoyance.
At the end of the movie after peace is restored, the sister asks the jock out to a movie, trying to form a date. The jock agrees and invites his *boyfriend,* whom he said is a chick flick enthusiast
The movie came out in the late 2000s or early 2010s I think, it was pretty unexpected and while I'm sure it was supposed to be a punchline that the very masc man has a bf so the sister's advances meant nothing, but it was still shown in a quite neutral light (from my perspective when I watched it as a kid
Laika studios > disney
I also love that it she didn’t get angry about it or that his sexuality was the joke. She was just disappointed that she never had a chance but at least they can still be friends
At the time I thought while it was cool, it was a bit of a cop-out that it's just a throwaway line at the end of the movie. However as an adult I really appreciate gay characters being allowed to just exist and be a part of a story without there needing to be a focus on their sexuality or them being in a relationship. That's why so much gay rep is so bad. Instead of seeing two minor gay characters have a performative kiss, I'd rather see one major gay character just live their life!
I first watched that movie with my brother and two of my friends, and I remember all of us laughing at the scene. I can't be sure why the others were laughing, but I remember simply finding it funny that the girl didn't have any chance with him, and not the fact that he's gay.
Its especially awesome because he isn't like this ultra feminine guy like most rep was at the time, he was a dude bro. Nice way to say anyone can be gay.
In Canada we had a children’s show called Mr Dress-Up. From 1967 to the late 80’s there was a character/puppet named Casey. The creator specifically gave a puppet a gender neutral name and never gave the puppet a gender because they wanted children to have the friend they wanted. If you wanted Casey to be a boy he was a boy … if you thought of Casey as a girl … she was a girl.
I loved Mr. Dress-Up! I lived in east Michigan so I got Canadian tv lol
I love adults think kids can take on board "My dad created me a boyfriend that was a cream puff" but they are completely unable to understand and accept "I'm a girl that has a cute vampire girlfriend". I also loved Mr Ratman's wedding in Arthur, it was so wholesome and lovely.
The one thing I get disappointed about is that every time a character claims to be disinterested in the “opposite” gender, they are automatically assumed to then be gay. Leaving all us aces who want to see ourselves in that same character feeling like we’re “stealing” representation if we say maybe they’re asexual instead. I’ve seen it with Elsa as well as Isabella from Encanto. If we could get ACTUAL representation instead of coding, then maybe both sides wouldn’t feel so cheated by the other (when we really need to gang up, not feel divided)
For whatever its worth, Im fully team Elsa is ace. partly from the line in into the unknown "Im spoken for I fear/everyone I've ever loved is here within these walls". Not open romantically, all her love is for her family and friends. And then the voice she "cant go out with because she's spoken for" ends up being herself /her destiny.
@@Dianwhy you know, when I first saw Frozen 2 I wanted the voice to be Elsa's future girlfriend so bad, and was very disappointed but not at all surprised to see it wasn't the case. But I really like your way of seeing thing and it makes more sense.
(And since around/ace are soooo under represented I wouldn't be too disappointed to see my dream of Elsa with a hot summer powered women crush, if it is for a good cause lol)
I'm gay but I am with the aces on the frustration at the lack of ace representation, as well as the overwheling amount of needless badly written stright romantic B plots. It seems like on tv a girl and a boy cant just be normal friends and there is so much painful acting with 0 chemistry.
There is supposed to be an ace character in dead end : paranormal park but they canceled it so I don't know if we are going to get to see it because shes in the middle of her realising it plotline.
Fun fact Lilith Clawthorne *is* canonically aro-ace. It just like doesn't come up in the show rlly but there is even an audio clip of Lilith's voice-actress reading an in-character letter from Lilith to Hooty abt how she has no interest in pursuing a romantic relationship w/ anyone. I think it was revealed via one of the charity streams the team did. Anyways, it's like mentioned in her trivia on the wiki & everything.
Also yea hopefully as there has been more representation in kids media in general that'll also extend to more aro-ace spectrum characters.
Yep! Elsa reads as ace to me!
When I was a little girl, I wore a Blue, Ben Ten backpack to primary school. And all the other kids called me gay and bullied me because I didn't have a pink, princess backpack like the other girls.
When I got to secondary school, girls from my friend group would read BL and fetishize gay men.
And when I got to college, I thought I was promiscuous bc I thought had a crush on every guy I met, not knowing that the feelings were completely platonic because it's all the same to me. Y'know cuz I'm gay.
Kids can be SO CRUEL, and CONFUSED when they aren't educated about LGBTQIA+ people. And they can end up hurting the people around them or themselves because they don't know any better or someone had implanted bigoted beliefs onto them first.
I WISH someone had educated me on these matters. I would have saved me so much confusion, and made me a kinder, more understanding person when I was younger.
Thank you for sharing your experiences. Just a clarifying question: the girls who were reading BL: did they fetishize real boys and men around them? Or just fictional ones in BL and media? I find people's experiences in these topics so interesting.
I'm in my mid-thirties, and my experiences were more like Jessica's than yours. Fanfiction/online culture was rampant, but much like queer stuff -no one talked about it in public, even amongst friends. EVER!
❤ so sorry you had such a long journey.
@@emmablake1913 now that you asked, oh i dont really know where to start. I remember they were shipping male Kpop idols, and were really into BL and read them in public. People online were shipping youtubers and fangirling over public display of male affection irl.
It was very weird. Not as in, shipping stuff is bad. I mean I also ship fictional characters, or sometimes I think real people have a lot of chemistry. But some thing tells me my peers were not seeing it in the same way that I was. Like, they were seeing gay people or gay interactions as commodity and not narratives of queer people falling in love. Like how straight men see lesbians in porn.
I don't know, i think its a very interesting topic and i would love to talk to you more about it.
As a queer person that is deep into BL, honestly, the majority of people into it are in the lgbt+ community. There is nothing fetishizing or wrong about a fictional couple. Especially in chinese BL where anti-fujoshi culture has very racist undertones.
What’s BL?
It took Disney _forever_ to get on the right side of this fight, but they’re hosting the largest annual LGBTQ+ conference as a massive F-U to the Don’t Say Gay Bill. Love to see it.
In The Mitchells vs The Machines the main character is openly queer, she wears a rainbow badge and at the end her mum asks if she's "official with Jade" and if she'll be bringing her home for Thanksgiving. It's a really great movie.
Also I hope you cover books next! It's amazing to me that when I wrote my thesis on LGBT YA there was not much to cover, but now you could easily do a whole video even just on picture books.
That's when I was going to mention.
I was instantly invested when they showed her fashion montage at the beginning.
The Mitchells Vs. the Machines was so much fun! I loved every bit of it. And it's just a tiny moment of representation at the end, but it's also treated as completely normal by all the characters, and the movie also doesn't try to brush over it. I thought it worked very well.
Wow. Core memory unlocked of myself as a young teen desperately seeking out any gay YA book I could find. I grew up around all types of LGBTQ+ people, so the concept wasn't foreign to me, but they were adults. I craved stories of people in my age group finding love or coming out or anything, really. Stories that didn't end tragically with at least one lesbian dying due to drug overdose. -_-
The problem is that there are way too many parents out there who think that cultivating an egalitarian, accepting, inclusive attitude in children _is_ corrupting their mind. They want their child to be like them: authoritarian, non-accepting and exclusive. These, of course, are the people who don't want children to be exposed to people who are different from them.
SHE-RA AND THE PRINCESSES OF POWER! Never seen a more diverse kid's show in terms of queer representation. ❤❤❤
I fricken love that show! ❤🧡💛💚💙💜
I loved that show so damn much 😭 it also had such a healing effect with the way Adora understood Catra's PTSD is not cruelty. Just 🤌
Double Trouble is my non-binary goals.
Honestly one of the best shows in terms of a lot of diversity. Racial/ethnic diversity, queer diversity (not only in terms of sexuality but also gender), mental health and the different ways of dealing with traumas, women empowerment, so many personalities, … every kids can feel represented somehow
A friend of Mara
"You absolutely do matter. You are wonderful. You DO belong". Boy, was that like a kick in the feels. I was totally fine and then almost started crying. I wish all kids were told this. Thank you for making these videos.
I just need to add my voice to the chorus singing the praises of She-Ra! The creator ND Stevenson is bigender transmasculine, and queer. The series is utterly delightful, and more or less all the characters are queer in some way. The ending is the most unapologetic celebration of lesbian love I have ever seen, I think.
Rebecca Sugar is non-binary too, in addition to being bisexual, and I find Steven Universe works very well as an exploration of non-binary identity and relationship to one's own body.
P.S. while Elsa's story does work for any type of queerness, my headcanon is that she is aro/ace, and I am heavily invested in that story. I just want her to ride off into the sunset on her own white horse, and live happily ever after with her elemental friends (and her familial loves). Maybe a conversation with someone about how she doesn't really have those kinds of feelings. Please. Thank you.
+1 to everything you said, especially the aro/ace note as an aro/ace myself!! I was very late in watching Frozen 2 as a full movie, so I watched Elsa's big song early on with no context and felt 100% it was about being queer
Eh, They’re good for queer rep but personally I don’t find either to be particularly great shows, especially She-ra. Mostly just the writing issues I have with it. That’s just me though
(Agree with the stuff regrading Elsa though! We need more Aromatic/Asexual/Aro-Ace rep in media)
@@intrusive-th0t In that he’s not a girl, sure
At my school, they intentionally misgendered him in a textbook where we read an excerpt of Nimona.
@HorseChild ... at that point why read what is one of the most explicitly gay peices of media currently in the public eye?
I think that better queer representation in the media would definitely have helped me when I was young - I thought that liking girls meant I was 'broken' for so long. Thank you for making this video Jessica, I really enjoyed it. I hope your jaw feels better soon too :)
❤
HELL YEA BUBBLINE!!! Marceline also giving bi representation and the Distant Lands goes EVEN DEEPER into their relationship dynamics
And obsidiannnn ahhh I love Bubbline
The other thing I did with my kids was to explain all the different reasons X is in a wheelchair etcetera. I would give lectures about responsible behavior with service dogs very loudly so as to educate everyone in range. I adore doing that. I learned it from my grandmother who would sit right next to the barrier between white and black sections at the cafeteria and loudly explain why we were NOT different from those patrons and how much she wished folx would learn that or at least be Christian and treat everyone the way they wish to be treated.
Go grandma!!
Wow, what a cool grandma! Seems like a great way to handle that kind of situation
@@helenl3193 I agree. She also used to make up stories about why folx were doing idiotic things in public.
Ex: Oh honey, you don’t know. Maybe his wife just called to tell him to come to the hospital because their baby is coming.
That's so great - it's so important for us to remember that we don't know what another person's context/story is, and we shouldn't judge people solely based on appearances. Sure you can make judgement calls for your own safety when necessary - this person appears violent so I'm going to disengage/deescalate if I can. But you shouldn't extend that to this person is clearly always violent/unstable, etc. You can't truly know a person from a single instance/interaction, we all have bad days and make mistakes we can learn from.
Kudos to your grandmother, and to you for following in her steps :)
@@helenl3193 Thank you! I talk about her to encourage more folx to the behavior. I also give out plastic coins with various neutral messages (pawsome, gold star, kindness coin) to folx as much as I can. I tell them to keep one in their pocket to remind them not everyone is a Karen, that it’s a tangible thank you and I often give them another to give to someone else.
I feel The Dragon Prince (the most recent series at least) definitely deserves a mention with Amaya and Jenai (human and an elf) trying to rebuild a society. Their relationship is part of their storyline but not the fact that they are lesbians, the other characters are more concerned that the humans and elves don't understand each others cultures and Amaya and Jenai are proving that humans and elves can live and rebuild together.
Their relationship is just sooo wholesome and I adore them! ❤
And also Amaya is deaf but an absolute badass fighter.
Yes! There's also a trans character, although sadly he's dating the most ANNOYING girl ever who does NOT deserve him. I also like that Callum and Ezran come from a blended family and Ezran is biracial, although obviously that's separate from queer representation.
You're right that most kid's shows that have LGBTQ themes show wlw couples, but one that has great queer male representation is Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts! At first, Kipo flirts with her friend Benson, but he quickly comes out as gay to her and she's super accepting and it's just a really sweet scene. Then he gets a boyfriend later in the show and it's so wholesome and adorable!
I dont think so. I didn’t see anything like that. 🤔Me and my little brother watched that recently and I don’t remember that.
@@shawnbehrens2294 You are blind then
@@shawnbehrens2294 I mean, he straight up says the words "I'm gay.", explicitely flirts with a guy, and on screen kisses him. In what way is that not a gay dude?
@@theviewer6889 well 1stly slow down there mater, that did not happen.. there fore done. You should know that this channel is run by a pair of Iesbians. So I don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish here.
@@AmbarGriss says the bIind woman
The little moment in Turning Red where Priya dances with the emo girl made me so wish that their kiss scene wasnt cut
Yeas we very much were. I think Luca was supposed to be gayer too 😔
She's a trad goth but yes!
@green mayo man🇺🇦 Yes, there was supposed to be more explicit flirting and quick kiss between the two girls as confirmed by both the Disney creator Andrea Goh, the Turning Red story board, and Pixar's letter to Disney in march 2022 that mentioned lgbt content had been forcibly removed from that specific film among others.
"oh did you not get the agenda? I thought we sent those out. Drag queens are usually so organized." I am dead. bahahahaha
I loved this video. Jessica’s excitement for the TV shows was so endearing.
If she can get that giddy over those storylines, just think what joy children get out of it!
Thank you so much! 🥰
@@jessicaoutofthecloset thank you so much for that! I have so many kids who have adopted me, because their family didn't accept them... Florida, and the 22 states following their example... completely breaking my heart.
The reptile, and now fish worlds, are up in arms over FWC (Fish & Wildlife Commission) going completely authoritarian and destroying businesses in Florida (and disrupting the aquarium hobby AND the reptile hobby across the US, since over 60% of the animals have been bred in Florida for decades) and the Holy Thursday Massacre.
When I ask if they spoke out against the "Don't say gay" law, I get a whole lot of "what do queers have to do with this?"
They truly don't grasp that allowing one demographic (LGBTQ+) to be targeted and villainized makes it easier for another demographic (herpetologists, and now ichthyologists) to be targeted.
I try to explain it, but I don't seem to be very persuasive....
I'm a bi woman in my early 30s and I met my girlfriend through The Owl House fandom, so I was really excited to hear you talk about that show :)
Two shows that weren't mentioned, but were central to my coming out journey, are The Legend of Korra and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. The representation in The Legend of Korra is less overt than shows which have come after it (Korra and her love interest Asami held hands but didn't kiss) but was groundbreaking at the time and the creators made statements confirming that the two of them were in a romantic relationship. Then, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power ended with a lesbian kiss that literally saved the world and that moment is what led to me realizing I was bi and coming out two months later
She-Ra is the best show for older kids (and adults), not just because of its representation (main character kisses her love interest in the end), but the depth of its plot and character development. The character arcs are amazing and there are many themes that are often neglected in children's shows (abandonment, forgiveness, insecure attachment, codependency). It was sad that you didn't mention this show - I strongly believe it is the highest quality and transparency queer animated show made for a younger audience. It's unapologetically queer and is 'mature' in that it doesn't rely purely on comic relief to maintain the viewes' attention (like Owl House often does). It is a must-watch for every queer adult who never got to have a queer childhood. I hope it will speak to you all on a personal level.
the autistic joy i felt when u mentioned The Owl House is aaa (it’s definitely a SpIn of mine and i’ve spent so much time analyzing the queerness and disability in the show, even wrote a paper for my undergrad classes on cripping fantasy with TOH as a case study)
TOH spoilers below-
I want to add that not only is the main character, Luz, canonically a neurodivergent GNC bisexual Afro-latina in a relationship with a girl (Amity, who’s lesbian and adorable and they hide pride flags regularly in the background, rewatch the scene where they ask eachother out, so cute), but her mentor, Eda, is also bi and has a nonbinary romantic interest. (There’s also a ton of background characters, ie gay dads and a side character’s romantic interest being nonbinary, and characters confirmed by the creators outside of the plot like Lilith being aroace.)
In season 3 episode 1, Luz comes out to her mom with a powerpoint saying “hi i’m bi” and her mom is fully loving and accepting, pulling her and Amity into a hug. Her mom can later be seen having done extensive research into queerness, which is such good representation of a positive coming out process that kids and their parents should be seeing on screen :)
And that’s not even getting into how queerness is central to the show’s themes beyond representation of relationships but also the whole plot and message is incredibly (neuro)queer in scope
I literally screamed out of happiness when I saw Luz's coming out scene for the first time
And less relevant to this video but definitely relevant to the channel is the chronic illness metaphor with Eda.
There is also more enby representation than Raine
[Season 3 Spoilers]
There is, for example that one person with their nails painted like the enby flag. And also [Spoiler for S3 E3]
In one of the last scenes, Luz entire outfit is in the colors of the non-binary flag.
@@FennekinBraixen [s3 spoilers] yes, Masha!! also Collector uses he/they pronouns soo
@@mackthompson616 Right, I totally forgot that!
When I was a kid, I loved watching Sailor Moon in the afternoon. And Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Saturn had this wonderful relationship that was just accepted and never questioned.
Now, as a mother myself, my todler is obsessed with a show called "Gecko's garage", featuring a family of mommy bus, baby bus and mama recycling, which is absolutely adorable! ❤
You mean Sailor Uranus &Neptunus? Saturn also had a relationship with Pluto but its pretty mysterious as both represent underworld (&linked to Chibi Moon). Jupiter as strong as Mars who closer to Mercury
I'm hopping on the She-Ra love train
Never have I seen such a great love letter to queerness in one animated show before. Literally everyone is not straight and is amazing. The world and art design draws you in so well and you can't stop watching. I binged all the seasons in less than two months and I have 0 regrets. Truly a must watch for all. If my gay wasn't already awakened this would've done it for me as a kid.
totally random, but you are one of the few channels on youtube i watch regularly that i cannot watch at 2x speed
i realize that’s not a normal compliment, but my ADHD brain really appreciates the way you speak
also thank you for covering queer topics, i would have never been able to learn about it on my own!
Same
As someone who has an Elsa avatar everywhere I can have one since 2013, who came out as Trans in 2013, AND A Lesbian. You are speaking directly to me on all this Elsa content. I hate that you're right that she won't actually get to "come out" for us as she should, but ...we know. We know.
Also surprised you didn't touch on She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (Catradora, Scorfuma).
Really good video. we need more like this.
I almost choked on my bread lol. I wasn't expecting my country to be called out like that. But yes as a Turkish person, from a country that makes openly lgbtq plus films, we became one that chooses them as a target because mr. Tyranny has run out of his collection of imaginary enemies
What r your fav lgbtq+ films &/ series produced in Turkey?
I can just imagine the freak out of an unenlightened mother upon seeing little Rubert with his 2 beautiful moms, 1 obviously biracial and the other wearing hearing aids , having hands that flop and using a mobility aide. Oh the horror. Please note the sarcasm. You have a beautiful family
I don’t like to use Karen to describe these people since I know some lovely ladies named Karen
Not to forget that Peridot from Steven Universe is canonically ace/aro!
Jessica, I REALLY appreciated and enjoyed this video even though I am 74 and have never before even heard of these children’s programs! Quite possibly because I was “lost” in the countryside of Northern Germany during the years you speak of. Thank you for introducing me to a whole new world!
I wish we had more representation growing up. My first real exposure at all to positivevLGBT+ rep was Willow and Tara in Buffy. I was raised believing it was sinful, so I was so confused about why I was cheering for this couple so much. Before I figured it out I went through a long drought of seeing any rep. I also went through some personal and physical things that kept me from dating or exploring my own identity at the same time. Then about 4 years ago my best friend shook up my favorite show forever. She told me my favorite character in my favorite show was bisexual and in love with her favorite character, his best friend. I didn't believe her, but she said pick any scene with the two and watch with an open mind. I instantly knew Dean Winchester was bi, canon or not. This led to me meeting a whole new group of friends in the Supernatural fandom. I began to really explore my beliefs, and came to realize that God loves gay people is not contrary to my beliefs. I became an ally. Then at 35 years old I finally realized that I am bisexual too. Without representation I may never have accepted it. I had made a million excuses when I had liked a female character. The idea of crush never crossed my mind. So glad kids are being shown positive rep much earlier now.
I love LGBTQ+ representations in children’s media sm, they are so wholesome
yeah i can tell from the pfp lol
I feared that it would change the future generations
@mayonnaiseman_ here too!
Not rly
@@shawnbehrens2294 Yes rly
American here! I always liked TJ and Cyrus from the Disney show "Andi Mack." It's kind of hard to watch the entire series legally even stateside because one of the adult actors got into some legal trouble involving a minor (cop pretending to be a minor) and Disney yanked all the episodes with him in it from reruns, and edited and reshot some of the subsequent episodes to fully scrub him out.
SPOILERS: I always liked the slow burn nature of the TJ and Cyrus subplot, and really felt like they were influencing each other for the better while still being able to stand on their own two feet as individuals. Cyrus comes out multiple times on the show to the support of his friends, even using the word 'gay' to describe himself when he comes out to another character, Jonah. TJ and Cyrus are just so sweet and wholesome and the Kira arc, while frustrating, really hit me in the feels. In the series finale, right before all the main kids either couple up with or say 'maybe someday' to their love interests, the whole crew sings Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" headed by TJ and Cyrus (the pitch correction on all actors isn't the best and even the obviously good singers could've benefitted from more collaboration behind the scenes, but it was still adorable). TJ and Cyrus never kiss in the series (unlike basically every major character with an opposite gender love interest) and I'm still a bit salty about that, but they're in middle school, and the hand-hold was so sweet I still love it almost four years later so I'm not that upset. :)
Craig of the creek just had one of the main characters reveal her first crush and it turns out she likes another girl :) it's a super cute arc about her coming out and everyone is really supportive. There's also plenty of other queer characters in the show
Okay, you missed A LOT with this one. Let's start with a few corrections:
- Spongebob isn't gay, he's asexual. The creator of the show explicitly talked about it in a interview many years ago and in that tweet Nick was just acknowledging his asexuality (and I think is great to reaffirm aces are part of the community too).
- The "first gay Disney character" is something said in almost every animated Disney movie. It happened with the shop and sauna owner in Frozen, with the two women and the baby in Finding Dory...
Now let's go to the history behind the already talked-about characters:
Nick is now known for its representation in The Loud house, which is great, but it was only possible because years before "Avatar: The legend of Korra" existed. (Spoiler alert) This series ended with Korra (main character) and Asami holding hands and travelling together through a portal, implying a romantic attraction and relationship between the two of them. It's also good to know that the two of them had previously dated and felt attracted to a guy, which implies them being bisexual instead of lesbians. Regardless of the label, despite fans and the show's crew wanting the ship to be canon, Nick kept pushing against it and only allowed brief hints with the biggest one being at the end of the whole series.
In Disney, before The owl house came Gravity Falls. There's plenty of evidence submitted by Alex Hirsch, creator of the show and current partner of Dana Terrance (something that has a great impact in TOH), on how much Disney pushed against queer representation in the show, to the point in which the only queer couple allowed to exist in the entire show was the two cops, who were allowed to demonstrate their romantic love for each other just in the last episode of the show.
Now other queer shows made for kids:
In Cartoon Network we can find Clarence (one of the main characters has two moms, a Cottage-gore femme and a butch one, the latter seeming to be the biological mother of the kid) and Craig of the creek (there are several episodes that talked about one of the main characters having feelings towards another girl and there's also an enby kid)
From DreamWorks (which seem to be the best one on this matter in my opinion) we can find She-Ra and the princesses of power (full of queer representation, mostly sapphics and a non binary/gender fluid character) and Kipo and the age of wonderbeasts (a coming out scene made completely natural which then develops into a cute mlm couple, and also includes a enby side character)
Last but not least there's Netflix's Dead End: Paranormal park. This show has been recently cancelled and wasn't promoted as much as it should. SPOILER ALERT! The two main characters are a gay, trans, Jewish teen boy and an autistic, (then discovered) bisexual, Indian teen girl. In the show there's also a tomboy demon, a seemingly straight Muslim girl and another gay guy
The Owl House having a they/them nonbinary character that wasn't like, an alien or a shapeshifter was a really big deal for me. Also, I can't believe She-Ra wasn't mentioned here!! If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it!
22:36 Apparently this is meant to increase parental control in their children's education, and yet from what I've heard of it, a parent can go in and say "Please support my LGBT+ child" and they can't? How is that giving parents control?
I loved Strange World! I actually saw quite a lot of promo for it, and went to see it in the cinema, but I have heard a lot of other people anecdotally say they didn't see a lot of promo and also had no idea it was coming out! It will be interesting to see in the future how this continues. I'd say I saw about the same amount as for other recent non-musical Disney movies, if not more.
❤️❤️❤️
@@jessicaoutofthecloset The story of how I found out about Strange World: through seeing the thumbnail for a video warning people about this "woke trash" made by none other than Ben Shapiro. I immediately decided that I was going to watch that movie ;)
SpongeBob's not gay actually, he's confirmed to be ace!
I also recommend she-ra: princesses of power to everyone. Theres so many lgbt identities in the show, its become my go-to comfort cartoon when i just wanna see some gay shit.
Another US children’s show that really made great strides in LGBTQ+ rep was Andi Mack! Andi’s friend Cyrus comes out as gay (I’m pretty sure the first Disney Channel character to do so in a show?), and they both have to navigate what it’s like to crush on the same person.
Cyrus later befriends a jock named TJ, and at the end of the series they both confess their feelings and hold hands. 🥺 it’s very wholesome! ❤
Yes cyrus was so awesome and Cyrus and tj is just such a cute ship. I also loved that he’s Jewish because I’m also queer and Jewish and Cyrus was, to my best recollection, the first openly queer character I saw on tv and so having my first queer character also be Jewish just looking back is so special. Also the scene where he came out to jonah was just so great it was funny and sweet and Jewish all at once
It's also good for kids to see representation of disabled people so they have the vocabulary to explain what they're going through. I just thought I was lazy and struggled with my parents thinking I wouldn't do things as opposed to being unable to do something. Until they let me get a boys haircut the summer before fifth grade I cried in pain every morning pushing past my pain levels trying to reach up high enough to brush my hair and ultimately needing someone to do it for me. I was an adult before they believed me and I had the tools to speak up about my neurological condition.
She-ra and the Princesses of Power (netflix) and The Dragon Prince (netflix) also come to mind in terms of representation! and The Dragon Prince has a character who signs!
My favourite representative kids movie is ‘’The Mitchells Versus The Machines’’ :) The main character, Katie, has a pride badge and a massive crush on a girl! The main focus is on family, but it helped me introduce to my little brother (who is 7 years younger) the concept of being a woman that likes a woman, and he says we’re like the siblings in it!
I love The Owl House and Steven Universe as well! Steven has so many mature themes, in addition to its LGBTQ representation. It shows diversity in body types, families (single parents, blended families), different ethnicities, as well as tackling mental health awareness. Also want to give a low key shout out to Sailor Moon for bringing us an iconic female couple (although censored internationally haha). It wasn't completely unproblematic, but even censored it was really clear there was something between Neptune and Uranus 😂
Edited to add: Definitely not a children's show but Arcane is also great in this department
I dont remember what happened between Sailor Saturn &Pluto, do you? 😅
One of my favorite examples is Lyra and Bonbon in MLP:FiM. They started as literal background characters who were always next to each other because their colors complemented, which led to fan speculation, which led to an episode where their "very special friendship" (e.g. censor-safe lesbianism) was made part of the b-plot, which culminated in half a second in the series finale where you can see announcement of them getting married in a newspaper.
These gay ponies had a metacontextual friends-to-lovers arc
We do not talk enough about SHE-RA AND PRINCESS OF POWER
Perfect re-boot of 80's cartoon!!! No matter how old you are - watch it!!
It was created by Queer Director and group.
it’s so good
Recommend for anyone, queer or not, but especially us lonely lesbians lol
I knew I wasn't a girl when I was in daycare. I obviously didn't have the proper words for it but I told my parents and always felt uncomfortable with people outside of my family treating me in a very gendered way. Our parents didn't care they never put any gender roles on us and we were just allowed to do what suited us and made us happy. It was more about it being age appropriate if anything.
Media did nothing to make me queer and I hate how some people still seem to believe media has that kind of power
I love The Owl House!! It has so much representation! Willow has two dads, Raine Whispers is non binary and uses they/them pronouns and they date Eda the Owl Lady, Vee is some form of queer since she's shown to have a crush on Masha who's non binary, the titan himself is genderqueer refering to himself as both King and Queen, and if we count the reveals from Dana Terrace on streams, Lilith is aro ace. Sure that is how she is on screen as well, but the topic of romance and sexuality doesn't really come up in her story arc so it was officially confirmed in a letter that Dana played in a stream.
The show Arthur did feature a gay relationship in season 22 where Arthur's teacher Mr Ratburn marries his male partner in an episode. Jane Lynch was also part of the episode. (You do mention Arthur, but not Mr Ratburn)
I was coming here to say that, was surprise Jessica missed the news but then she has been rather busy with Rupert in recent times
Another (and super underrated show) is kipo and the age of wonderbeasts! Benson is gay and eventually ends up dating another boy in the series. Theres a scene early on in the show where Benson comes out to Kipo after she says has a crush on him, theres no bad feelings at all from kipo & they stay close friends
Korra and Asami held hands in 2014 so that Ruby and Sapphire could get married and Catra and Adora could kiss.
Sailor Moon, She-Ra, Korra, and Bob's Burgers, Xena (yes it was for kids AND adults. But it went beyond Xena and Gabrielle. They had a drag queen win Miss Known World), Peppermint Patty and Marcie, Yuri on Ice, Utena, Ranma 1/2, Princess Knight, Heart stopper. I know Disney is popular but I honestly don't understand how missed such heavy hitters as these.
Shego AND HER BROTHERS all got hit with that rainbow meteor, and all her brothers are ALSO super queer-coded! Also, when Shego turns good for a day and becomes a substitute teacher at the school, the principal crushes on her hard and she's super into... their nice friendship. When she and Drakken were pushed toward each other in a romantic gesture (literally tied together with a flower between them), they both leaned away from each other and gave that awkward "we're besties, not lovers" look.
I remember being so happy that, in one of my favorite childhood shows, The Loud House, one of the sisters has her own episode where she's crushing on someone named "Sam". It was initially suggested that the crush was a guy, but in the end they turned out to be a girl
Some kids maybe raised by a mother and a father, two mothers or fathers, single parents, raised by other relatives, guardian, ones with no parental figures and or chosen families. Every family is different and is very beautiful ❤
The final nail in the coffin for me coming out as trans was watching the Netflix revisit special of Rocko’s Modern Life. In the special Rocko and friends find that Rocko’s neighbor’s son has come out as trans and is going by Rachel now. The friends are happy for her and move along with the story. There’s even a point where we find her mother is super supportive, her father not so much but it turns out he’s not even upset she’s trans, he’s just overwhelmed by all the changes happening in quick succession around him and once he does, eventually, calm down he does accept his daughter. I cried and the very next day I came out to my wife. First time I ever said, “I’m Trans” out loud.
My son loved Stephen Universe when he was younger (still does). One day he asked me to watch the movie with him,.I'd never watched an episode. I was actually blown away by it. It was beautiful.
I feel like I need to introduce anyone who didn’t already know about it to Dead End: Paranormal Park. It aired on Netflix and was cancelled after two seasons but it’s extremely and openly queer. The main characters are a gay Jewish trans guy and a bi south Asian girl with social anxiety who is heavily implied to be on the spectrum. I legit cried at some of the scenes (especially the coming out ones) because they hit so close to home and it’s overall just a great show.
Sorry if this was kinda long lol I just really love this show and having several characters explicitly state that they are part of an identity that I also share meant so much to me. 💜💜
The Netflix kids' show "Princess Power" has a character with two dads. It's actually really cute and they don't make a big deal out of it. But also: what about She-Ra and the princesses of power? This one could have its own video with the complex relationships and the very gay endgame (oh, catradora! my heart).
"The average age a child realizes they may not be straight is twelve years old" definitely checks out for me! That's when I started thinking, "Hey wait, I like boys, but I also like girls. That's not the norm, is it?"
There’s a LGBTQ+ icon in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s animation world…Bugs Bunny. He usually wore women’s clothing and makeup, plus he kissed a couple of male characters like Elmer Fudd. i enjoyed those cartoons as a kid. 😊 I knew Velma from “Scooby Doo” and Albus Dumbledore both are gay. Excellent video as always! ❤
Also love Legend of Korra!!! The show got censored by the network but the comics that follow show Korra and Asami very explicitly being together 😊
My niece and nephew love Lightyear because the film is the first time they've seen a family that looks like theirs on screen. This is why we need queer representation in kids films!
I’ve been watching adventure time since I was 4 or 5
My mom almost banned me from watching it when I came out as queer in 2022
And then the closet returned to me
And then it crumbled around me in 2023 when my mom searched my phone
It's honestly pretty cute how she points out that she's going to mispronounce things, followed closely by mispronouncing Luz's name multiple times.
Though to be fair, plenty of hearing folks who aren't familiar with Hispanic names pronounce it the exact same way, instead of like the word "loose" or "lose".
I recall my classmate came out to his mother, about the only person left on earth at that time, who didn't know his sexuality. She attacked him, clawed his face, punched him etc. That was the mid 90s and he was 16 years old. 😢
I'm a younger millennial, but I had my siblings SO recommend Steven Universe. Ya'll I cried like a baby through most of that show. I'm eternally grateful to this person for showing me that there is LGBTQ+ rep going on in our newer media. Next I'm onto the Owl House!
Avatar the legend of Korra is an interesting example, Korra and Asami are canonically queer, but the creators weren't allowed to explicitly explore that in the nickelodeon show, so they ended on a scene hinting towards their relationship and continued that plotline in the comic book released afterwards
That myth was debunked years ago
Gravity falls had the WORST time with Disney over 2 side characters cops who were gay. I saw a post from one of the creators and the hoops he had to jump through just to get them to hug! Owl house did go hard with the queerness in "season" 3 but mainly because they were already cancelled. Disney then spread the 3 episodes of season 3 out over 6 months and did not advertise. (Their other seasons have over 12 episodes.)
Side Note - no judgement on your pronunciation, I understood you perfectly! Just a helpful hint if you want it. Luz from Owl House is pronounced more like a nickname for Lucy. Sounds like Loose.
GUYS WE GOT ANOTHER ONE! Co-director of Luca, in honor of it playing in theaters again showed depictions of main character and main characters “friend” kissing and such
A favorite queer coded charachter from my childhood is Moomin from the 1990s tv-show. He was so obviously in love with Snufkin
Kipo is another great example of openly gay representation in kids shows! Also a great show in general!
Did she not talk about Korra and Asami?? The show whose finale was not even aired and had to be watched on the network's website because of the gay ending? And they didn't even kiss! Truly paved the way for SU and all the others that came after it
Growing up I was very intrigued by Neptune and Uranus in sailor moon, and I had no prior knowledge about anything involving the LGBTQ+ community.
I find it frustrating that the idea of "corrupting children" is used to judge people and push so many idiotic agendas out into the world. We see/read so many stories where the prince rescues the princess from the tower yada yada, and they kiss at the end, and no one bats an eye. Because that is seen as "normal", no children are corrupted, hence let the straights kiss in front of children.
But if it were to be two same sex people in this duo, well, ready your pitchforks and torches!
I don’t know why, but “Some countries and Florida” made me cackle so hard 🤣🤣
❤ ua-cam.com/video/RRljxr-HnrM/v-deo.html
Queer rep in kids shows is so good now compared to the 70s and 80s when I was growing up. Increasingly, there are queer characters where their queerness isn't lampshaded. It's just who they are, and there isn't a story line or plot to explain or negotiate it. Netflix has a good range of inclusive kid cartoons in particular. Kid shows are far more inclusive than adult stuff IMHO currently.
Oh, and if you enjoy cartoons with bright colours and singing and absolutely not suitable for children, then I highly recommend Hazbin Hotel. It is also a little bit gay.
What about Anime in general?
Two of my favorite LGBT recent shows are Craig of the Creek and Dead End:Paranormal Park. The first one features at least three sapphic relationships including one from one of the main characters, many other gender non conforming and queer characters, non binary characters, a deaf character, and is very black and brown and also just a really cute good show. The other centers around a teenage gay trans boy and his best friend who is a bi autistic Indian girl and is also about a haunted park with ghosts and demons. They’re both so good and underrated. I want more queer adults to be watching them!
Spinelli is my favorite character from Recess. I wanted to be her, as a kid. 💖
Also, I'm surprised you didn’t mention Shera. Perhaps a video for another time? 🙂
Petition to make Princess Bubblegum and Marceline Your next Haloween couple costume!
GOODDDDDD what was missing is such a good adventure time episode i LOVE bubbline, and their relationship during the stakes ark UGHHHHHH THEYRE THE BEST
Those "protect the children" people are ridiculous. I have always expressed myself in a queer way before I even knew what that meant. My parents knew long before I did and I was six years old when I had my first queer crush. Six.
For many kids, they're not introducing them to anything new and outside their experiences. But we all know they just hate LGBT folks.
another thing about Steven Universe, in the later episodes one of the side characters, Sadie, is revealed to be in a relationship with a non-binary character! it was just for an episode or two (im not really sure how many episodes they were featured in since i haven't watched the show in a while), but that representation was so refreshing and nice especially for a NB person such as myself
Luz is pronounced “lose” as in win:lose
I stumbled across your channel this week and you are amazing ♪ It’s awesome to find people that are my flavor of humor/personality ♥︎
I remember reading a Rick Riordan book and wondering "is this character gay?" but knew ot was unlikely cuz I'd never seen a gay character in a children's story and then being so happy and surprised when I it was revealed they were. Also I was reading another one of his books with a trans character and I liked this character a lot and I was like, screw this other character I was shipping mc, I want the trans character to be the love interest. And they ended up being so. (It turned out my shipping radar had been dead wrong about the previous love interest)
Some kids shows do a great job of showing a wide and diverse view of the world; Bluey, Chip and Potato... even Peppa Pig.
The first time I can remember seeing an explicitly queer character in an animated film was in Paranorman, where Norman's older brother mentions his boyfriend at the end of the movie
Other children's cartoons featuring queer characters: She-ra (2018) and The Dragon Prince. Same sex couples show affection towards each other pretty openly and they are cute :3
And another animation, which I recommend, is Carmen Sendiago. This one hints at queer characters but personally I don't think that it is suttle at all ^^
Came here for this! It'd be great to hear Jessica's take on Dragon Prince in particular, since two of the protagonists actually have a deaf lesbian aunt who is a pretty major supporting character.
@@morinomajou Oh yes I could see Jessica enjoying Amaya a lot ^^ Maybe one day she will get to watch Dragon Prince and make a video discussing her 😊
Let’s not forget the OG’s Bert and Ernie
Yassss
My little brother moved outta state for a job, and is in the same town as a friend from college. Friend became a movie theater manager, and got him in to see Strange World for free. They basically had the theater to themselves, and he texted me recommending it afterward. I saw it and loved it, but I guess Disney didn't wanna promote such a diverse movie. It's like they are ashamed of making it, which is confusing.
I SCREAMED WHEN YOU MENTIONED THE OWL HOUSE I LOVE THAT SHOW
I headcanon dipper pines from gravity falls as transmasc :]
theres an episode where hes insecure in his masculinity cause he listens to a "girly" pop band & goes through manliness trials run by minotaurs who have toxic masculinity but at the end of the episode he has to fight the "multi bear" (a bear with 7 heads) who also happens to love the same pop band so hes just like "mehh idc what they think"
hen in another episode he drinks a serum to make his voice deeper after being teased by his friends AND I QUOTE "u dont think I'm a MALE MAN" (a MAIL lady walked by & mistook him for a colleague)
Edit: also adding on, in 1 episode dipper & his twin sister swaped bodies & he seems really uncomfortable (she was too but that was due to outsude interaction from their uncle trying to give her the bords & the bees talk lmao)
Yooo, transmasc Dipper!! Another thing for transmasc Dipper is that him and Mable are identical twins, which are usually born the same gender :)
Honestly that’s exactly what I went through when I was his age that’s saying something, as a trans boy 😟
15:25 Steven Universe being praised by it's actual accmplishments is serotonin directly into my veins.
Growing up in the 90s in a country with little to no representation, I had no idea that the reason I kept looking at women on the street or that my unnecessarily intense feelings for my best friends were simply me being a queer kid :) it took me years of confusion to even begin to understand that I wasn't weird or broken
THANK YOU for mentioning the Owl House. Favourite show of all time, the story is incredible and yes it has some of the best queer rep I've ever seen. Lumity set the bar not just queer relationships but romance writing in general, it's refreshing seeing the main relationship of the show become official only half way through the show and actually getting to see them functioning together as a couple. Also Eda being bi and previously being in a relationship with nonbinary character Raine who's they/them pronouns are always respected, and who Eda clearly still has feelings for. And while Luz and Amity's relationship is a realistic depiction of blossoming young love, it's nice to also have Eda and Raine as representation for older queer people as well. Eda's sister Lilith is also canonically aro/ace and while this has never been explicitly said in the show, Dana Terrace did confirm this in a live stream and she never seems interested in romantic relationships throughout the show. The show tells this really epic and surprisingly dark story and also has so many important and great characters who happen to be queer.
I did my best to find the full spectrum of humanity in books and other media for my kids born in the 90s.
“As you do” has never been funnier! I really appreciate how you make me laugh! And yeah, yay gay representation!