“Disney, you did it.”
Enchanting Grom Fright, the 16th episode of The Owl’s House, released the other day, has kicked off a discussion on the representation of LGBT characters in children’s cartoons. In this episode, it turns out that Amity’s hostility towards the main character Luz, shown in all previous episodes, is caused by a desire for closer communication with her. As a result, Emily and Luz dance with each other at the ball. Series creator Dana Terrace tweeted;
I’m bisexual! And always wanted to create a bi-character, damn it! Luckily, my persistence paid off, and now I am very supportive of the Disney leadership. Great team.
When I was doing Gravity Falls, Disney banned me from showing any explicit LGBT people. But today, thanks to Dana Terrace, there are clearly animated gay main characters on Disney TV. I am so happy and proud of the Owl House.
After that, he also wrote a separate post on Twitter, where he posted a frame with Amity and Luz dancing with the caption:
In 2012, Disney’s censorship in this image would be “Not appropriate for channel, fix, call back for discussion.” Call back so that there is no paper trail. Now, in 2020, censorship is silent. This time, Disney, you did well!
According to the LGBT community, Disney is an outsider in addressing the issue of equal representation of sexual minorities in children’s TV shows. Other networks such as DreamWorks and Cartoon Networks are ahead of them.
The heroines of “House of the Owl” are 14-year-old students of the school of magic. The main characters of Gravity Falls, Deeper and Mabel, are 12 years old.