Poll: Should There be Gay Characters in Kid's Shows/Films?

[Tonythion]

Pffft I thought everyone who didn't have anyone they were remotely interested in was gay. Like in sesame street or something where there would be some married couple then down the block was an eccentric man who wasn't with anyone...totally thought he was gay.

Well not everyone but like the eccentric ones that had this weird interest in something that wasn't gender appropriate...I just tried to make myself feel better when I was a kid *sobs*

 

[drisky]

With subtly sure, there was an episode of Postcards from Buster in which one of the kids had two moms, they just mentioned that she had two moms and moved on. Kids don't really think of sex so we don't have to explain to them about homosexuality, but that example was a good way for kids to feel their parents are normal. Shows for teenagers definitely need it though, more than any other age group. Thats when they need to feel themselves as normal and have characters to identify with, and there pretty much going to know about sexual urges so you don't have to explain that to them.

 

[Biosophilogical]

I don't think kid's shows should have any type of sexual connotations.

I also agree. But!, if the show already includes romantic interactions, then don't limit them to heterosexual couples. I mean, instead you could make the 'romance'[footnote]If we are talking super-kiddy shows, then any romance is purely implied, there isn't actually any romantic touching[/footnote] just a really close friendship, which cold easily be shown between two males or two females.

But yeah, sexual connotations in children's shows? No. If there already are (for some reason), should they not actively exclude homosexual couplings? Yes.

 

[The Gnome King]

Stuff!

That's actually a rather intelligent reply. Congratulations.

As I understand it, the question being asked in the topic is not "should there be homosexuality-accepting/oriented shows?" but "should shows be accepting/oriented towards homosexuality?"

You see, I don't care one whit if there's a channel that shows "alternative lifestyle" kids shows - as long as it's designed in the same way as Christian kids' channels are today - designated channels. If you want to do that, go right ahead; I don't care. It's happened in other media (children's picture books [http://www.amazon.com/King-Linda-Haan/dp/1582460612/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1301351383&sr=8-1]) and it has no affect on me nor on my potential future progeny, any more than VeggieTales has on yours.

The problem occurs when you make this answer ("homosexuality is good/right/natural/immutable") part of general children's television. It's the same issue I'd have with, say, a Nickelodeon show condoning premarital sex - implicitly saying "this is OK" to my kids is a problem.

I would have to respectfully disagree, if only because right now heterosexuality is shown blatantly in every.single.kids.show that features ANY kind of relationship.

See, general children's television right now features relationships between heterosexual couples - as moms and dads, as romantic interests, etc. - and it's considered normal, again because of heterosexual/Christian privilege.

This implicitly states to kids that gays and lesbians either a) don't exist or b) are something to be ashamed of. If your kids turn out gay, I hate to say it, but chances are far more likely that it's genetic than due to a children's show they watched when they were 8.

I don't see how showing a cartoon where one of the characters had two dads - and left it at that, never mentioning the "good" or "bad" parts of homosexuality would be indoctrinating your children any more than watching "traditional" kids shows where every couple is a nuclear family mom and pop style setup would be "indoctrinating" my kids... except thing is, you get a choice in the matter; I don't.

Homosexuality exists, and homosexual families exist, regardless of if people "like" it or not. Reflecting this in the occasional kids programming doesn't have to go beyond showing, as I said, a gay family. No moral judgments need to be made; it can simply be integrated just as heterosexual relationships are now. You show two men making breakfast for their son; period.

Comparing that to premarital sex in a kids show is... well, slightly offensive. I'll leave you to think about why that might be. We're not bringing sex into this at all - showing a male couple raising kids and not even mentioning sexuality simply shows something that DOES exist in modern day society - two men or two women raising children.

I wouldn't get bent out of shape if a cartoon, say, showed a family going to church, either. Church exists, and if my children asked me about church I'd be glad to explain it to them in an age-appropriate way - I could leave it at, "Some people go to church, even though we don't." It's not "indoctrination" (like Veggie-Tales certainly IS) to simply show something that is happening in a nonsexual, nonjudgmental way.

Restricting any cartoons that showed non-heterosexual parents to "gay" channels sounds like it would be a bad idea, personally. Just as I wouldn't want to restrict any children's shows that showed heterosexual parents to the "Christian" channels.

Just show a varied worldview to kids - blacks, Asians, gays, multi-cultural families, heterosexual parents, lesbian parents - and leave it at that: exposure. Simple exposure without value judgment.

One of the sad things I have seen when volunteering to work with gay youth are those "Christian" families who cast their children out for being gay, not realizing for a minute that these kids don't have any more choice over who they are attracted to than heterosexual people don't have a choice. I assume you're heterosexual; and I assume this is something you feel you were born with - not a choice you made at some arbitrary point in your life.

If one of your children does turn out to be gay I imagine it would be psychologically a lot healthier for him or her if he or she saw that other gay people are out there, doing normal things, working normal jobs, raising normal families... as opposed to being sheltered from it because of a moral problem you have with the lifestyle.

Just as if one of my kids turned out to be Christian or (shudder!) even Republican - - I am happy that they have at least been exposed to these things, realizing that Christians and Republicans are part of the world we live in and that while I myself have made different choices, I can't choose who my children will grow up to become.

Most parents eventually realize this - you can provide a healthy environment for your kids to grow up in but their ultimate sexual orientation, political views, religious views, etc., - aren't really up to you.

Exposing them to different lifestyles at an early age can only be a good thing.

 

[Timbydude]

Gay adults? Sure. Gay kids? That's pushing it.

Not that being gay is something "wrong" or something to be ashamed of, but most boys simply go after girls because they aren't actually sexually attracted to anyone yet and they're just doing what's popularized in the media. My impression is that a gay 9- or 10-year-old boy doesn't actually feel any sort of attraction to men until years later, so it would be pointless and unrealistic to include an openly gay child.

 

[Mimssy]

If it's a show like Rugrats, I could see one of the toddler's parents being gay. I find displays of sexuality in a kid's show kind of weird if it's from the young members of the cast.

 

[YawningAngel]

I want identifiably homosexual characters to exactly the extent I want identifiably heterosexual characters: none. That isn't what children's programming is for.

 

[Digikid]

Absolutely not. Sorry.

 

[jpoon]

Definitely no, kids don't need to see this kind of shit. Why push it upon them?

 

[SodaDew]

NO! Gays can be gay but please let parents tell the kid what gay means instead of some t.v show character

 

[Jacinto]

I know when I was a little kid, I had no interest in shows that talked about relationships at all. I actually changed the channel when there was any kind of romance or boyfriend/girlfriend stuff. It is not that there should or should not be gays in the kids shows, it is more about do kids care at all about watching relationships. Like in Ghostbusters, I was bored as hell when they had an ep about any of them going on a date or hooking up with someone. I just wanted it to get back to the story and the action. You don't need to push the "oh by the way, this guy is gay" stuff. Lets take a look at Harry Potter for instance. When the author said Dumbledore was gay, there was a bunch of people getting uppity about it. Thing is, it didn't matter because it was never actually mentioned in the story. They never needed to point it out because his sexuality was meaningless when it came to the plot. Kids, at least most little boys, don't care about that kind of stuff and just want the show to get to the point.

 

[Nocturnal Gentleman]

No. Kids don't care about relationships. They want to see action and crazy mess. If you want kids taught about homosexuals then take a real life celebrity couple and say hey look it's so and so with his/her family! There you go. I ignored relationships in the shows I watched as a kid.

Kids movies or kids shows that cover mature topics (like Hey Arnold) sure. Mostly because it has a higher chance of being barely noticeable as it should be. Gay stereotypes are as harmful as not having them at all. Most likely this is what you'll get in the common drug trip we call kid's shows now.

 

[teh_spartan]

Gayness has nothing to do with gay Influences in the Childs life I have a friend who has two fathers and he is all about the pussy

 

[omicron1]

Stuff!

The thing is, the two sides of the major active debate aren't "Homosexuality is wrong" and "heterosexuality is wrong." They are "homosexuality is an action/a mental state/a temptation" and "homosexuality is normal/natural/genetic." So heterosexuality has nothing to do with it.

There is a large contingent of the population - myself included - that believes that homosexual behavior is a sin and a temptation - in much the same way that we believe that premarital sex is a sin. That was the idea I was aiming for, although I see where you have a problem with the comparison. Sadly for the sake of discussion, most controversial moral decisions do concern sex - I imagine you'd have just as much of a problem with a show that portrayed lying as a good thing as I would - so finding a decent comparison is a bit hard.

The problem I see with portraying a homosexual character in a children's show - no matter whether he is shown positively, negatively, or completely neutrally - is that implicit in his presence is the concept of "it's normal." It's not the same as showing a Christian in the show for the simple reason that the question isn't "are Christians normal?" but "are Christians right?" The unanswered question at the heart of this debate is "what, exactly, is homosexuality?" and including gay characters in a children's TV show is conditioning them to think "that's normal."

On to a final few points:

First, I must say that I hold any "Christian" parents who abandon their child in about as much regard as I do Fred Phelps. Also, while (and I mentioned this earlier) such people do exist, they are no more than a minute fraction of Christendom. Cries of "homophobic" by rights should be directed at people such as this, who obviously consider homosexual behavior to be an intrinsically damning condition - to direct it at any opponents of homosexuality in general is as harmful to your efforts to help the true victims as it is to me.

Finally, it is interesting that you make that assumption concerning me, as, while I do consider myself heterosexual, I have struggled for years with a desire to be female. But - and this is crucial - I do not for a moment believe that I was born "a woman in a man's body," as some put it. I know that this is an issue, a temptation, a mental problem I possess. I hope someday to fix my errant desires and take up a normal life, and I find it amusing that people - not you, per se, but others I have encountered - blindly assume that I am ignorant of "the real truth" - that, if I only felt the same thing they do, I would be on their side.
I do, but I'm not.

And that is that.

Thanks for talking, as opposed to raging, by the way. Opportunities to actually discuss the issues at hand are truly rare on the Net.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

I don't think kid's shows should have any type of sexual connotations.

Exactly.

Sex really shouldn't be a part of kit anyways, so even if there were homo/bisexual chrecters, it wouldn't matter as there would be no sexxual interaction between anybody anyways.

 

[Apocalypse Tank]

We start to acknowledge rights for gays and now they want to be represented in everything. Not only do people tend to forget that the majority of the population on Earth is still heterosexual (therefore homosexuality is easily over-represented), but also certain mediums do not benefit from introducing new sexual orientations and sexuality in general (transgender, etc).

This is one of the big things with Bioware. With the amount of time they put into homosexual relationships, they can be much more involved with heterosexual relationships, taking into consideration its audience.

 

[Flac00]

My only problem is that it will bring up conversations that parents don't want to bring up. Much of it having to do with "sex" as the youngins like to call it. Honestly though, any sort of sexualization should be kept out of the shows for very young kids.

 

[thephich]

Depends on the show. If its a show that lacks the concept of male-female sexual dynamic, no it doesn't need to be there ( ie Blues Clues, Frannies Feet etc. ). But if it the show is allowed to have heterosexual relationships displayed on the show, I don't see why homosexual relationships can't be displayed.

I guess my point is, if hertro's are shown, homo's should be too.

 

[Romblen]

No for two reasons.
1. Sexual orientation is not really a subject worthy of a kids show, it's not the right time.
2. Excluding comedy, I have yet to see the entertainment industry use a homosexual character without it being, for lack of better terms, pushy. Maybe they have done it at one point or another, but I've never seen it and it shouldn't be added in as something for kids until the industry is ready to handle the subject.