It’s becoming clearer by the day that the Republican Party is betting that animus toward LGBTQ Americans is a big winner this election year. Now Kansas’ junior senator is taking his culture war fight to Hollywood — and making it about kids.
Citing “parents raising legitimate concerns on sexual orientation and gender identity content on children’s TV shows,” the letter evokes “the motivations of hypersexualized entertainment producers striving to push this content on young audiences,” calling the creators “suspect at best and predatory at worst.”
Pretty heavy charges. When a Star reporter asked for a list of this nefarious programming, the examples included Netflix’s cartoon “She-Ra and the Princesses of Power” and Nickelodeon’s “Danger Force.” Also, a Pixar job listing for an actor and the fact that Disney airs a public service ad.
The glue holding all this offensive content together? Transgender people. Some of them young.
Did the generations of children who watched Bugs Bunny pin back a blond wig and squeeze into a pencil skirt to pull one over on Elmer Fudd all turn into cross-dressers?
Think about yourself and the first time you realized what kind of person turned your head. Could watching a cartoon possibly change that? Would a female character on your favorite action show who liked girls make you think, “Oh wow, I should try that, too”? Of course not. That’s not how people work. Simply seeing LGBTQ characters on TV is no threat to our children’s well-being.