Sesame Street launches with its first gay couple.
While Hungary is currently striving to ban queer content from the media, the USA is currently taking a different approach.
Because: an episode has now been published on YouTube in which everything revolves around a gay couple. Fittingly, this is part of the content of Family Day. Among other things, it is intended to show what everyday life is like in a rainbow family. Frank and Dave, the two main characters, are the dads of a daughter (Mia).
They are all introduced to the other Sesame Street residents - and thus to the audience.
Many queers are excited about the gay couple on Sesame Street - but there are dissenting voices, too
Already now (as of June 21, 2021), the video with the rainbow family has been clicked on far more than 100,000 times. The comment function is deactivated. Viewers only have the option of giving thumbs up or thumbs down.
The corresponding ratings currently seem to balance each other out. Not everyone seems to be enthusiastic about the fact that more queer content could now be seen on Sesame Street. In the social networks, including Facebook, people have the opportunity to express themselves in more detail and not just with "thumbs up" or "thumbs down.
However, the 50:50 picture also tends to be represented here. While many people celebrate the fact that families outside the "cis ideal" are now also getting their platform, others are less enthusiastic about it.
Not the first statement of the dolls?!
Homosexuality, queerness and the like seem to be a red rag for many - especially in connection with series and films aimed at children.
Sesame Street in particular has become increasingly courageous in this regard over time. When it was first shown at the end of the 1960s, the focus was - if at all - on classic role models. Every now and then, however, rumors arose that Ernie and Bert might be a gay couple. After all, the two live together and discuss topics that should not be foreign to longtime lovers. Whether it's about one of them not being able to sleep or one of them (usually Ernie) getting on the other's (usually Bert's) nerves, it's fun to imagine that there's more to them than just friendship and that's exactly what the show's creators have always imagined.
What's "so bad" about queer content in shows that are about families?
That's exactly what the people in charge might have asked themselves before they let the two new characters Frank and Dave appear. It's also possible that they were surprised at how viewers can get upset about a rainbow family that obviously works brilliantly and is received with enthusiasm in the Sesame Street community.
However, one fact that cannot be explained away here is the fact that there are quite a few people who have given the queer video a thumbs down. In the social networks, there is always talk here that children are "still too young" for such content. Other viewers go one step further and declare that it is generally not "normal" to have two dads.
However, the fact that it is precisely such consequences that can ensure that children encounter each other with more tolerance is unfortunately forgotten here. Prejudices against queer people are inherited from the environment. So it's all the better that Sesame Street dares to address these issues even more openly than before, leaving no doubt about which side it's on.
Did you catch the "fag bandage" tweet yet?