Iconic children’s television show Sesame Street has just aired a “milestone” episode featuring a two-dad couple and their daughter. This is the first time a family with LGBTQ parents has been included in the main segment of the show. Watch it here!
Dreamworks Animation’s kids’ show “Madagascar: A Little Wild” has introduced a nonbinary character, voiced by a nonbinary actor—and also brings us a new song for Pride that’s bound to stick in your head. Watch the clip here (and learn a bonus fun fact tying the show to a classic queer-inclusive children’s book)!
The new Paramount+ reboot of the children’s TV series Rugrats now includes a single queer mom, voiced by a queer actor!
Nick Jr. children’s show Blue’s Clues & You! has released a new alphabet video for kids celebrating “how each letter of the alphabet is special!” We see that “P Is Full of Pride” with an array of varied Pride flags, including the trangender, nonbinary, bisexual, pansexual, intersex, genderfluid, asexual, lesbian, and rainbow flags. Watch it here.
GLAAD yesterday released its latest annual “Where We Are on TV” report, which looks at the number of LGBTQ regular and recurring scripted characters on network television, cable, and streaming services. Let’s look at what they discovered about LGBTQ inclusion in children’s shows—while I wildly speculate about some LGBTQ-inclusive kids’ books that I’d love to see made into shows.
The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) and Cartoon Network have launched a cheery new comic starring Cartoon Network characters that highlights the power and importance of respecting gender identity through the use of pronouns.
Even in the middle of summer, things are happening! This week’s roundup is heavily (but not exclusively) about entertainment news—lighter fare, perhaps, but also touching on the important topic of representation.
The award-winning Disney Junior show Doc McStuffins ran its last new episode on Saturday after eight years on the air. It won much praise for offering the positive role model of a young Black girl who was a doctor—and for a 2017 episode that was the channel’s first to show a two-mom family. Its creator and executive producer, Chris Nee, is also a lesbian mom herself.
A recent episode of Disney Junior’s animated series T.O.T.S.—a sweet show about friends and families—included a two-mom couple.
The Academy Award-winning songwriters behind Disney’s Frozen announced recently that they are working on Universal Pictures’ movie musical adaptation of The Prince and the Dressmaker, Jen Wang’s award-winning graphic novel about a genderqueer prince. And 20th Century Fox is adapting the Goldie Vance comic series, which stars a queer protagonist, into a film—making this a good time to assess the state of LGBTQ representation in children’s film and television.
