Disney recently confirmed its new cartoon series about witchcraft will feature a lead character who is openly bisexual.
As Faithwire previously reported, “The Owl House” is a series about a 14-year-old Dominican-American girl named Luz Noceda, who has, in the show’s latest episodes, expressed romantic interests in female characters — a narrative decision NBC News heralded as historic.
The series follows Luz’s journey to another world, where she is learning to become a witch. In the two episodes in question — “Enchanting Grom Fright” and “Wing It Like Witches” — Amity, a reoccurring female character, reveals her intentions to ask Luz to “Grom,” the mythical world’s version of a prom dance.
Dana Terrace, the series’ creator, stated via Twitter she has long intended to feature “queer kids” in the cast of “The Owl House,” though Disney was initially opposed to the idea. Eventually, she explained, her “stubbornness paid off” and now she is “very supported by current Disney leadership.”
Spencer Wan, the former animation supervisor for the cartoon show, shared the original storyboard for a dance scene between Lux and Amity. The animation, he wrote, marked his “first time getting to do anything even remotely queer, and I’ve never been prouder of any board.”
The pro-LGBT advocacy group PFLAG National lauded Disney for moving forward with the openly bisexual teenage character in the children’s series.
This is certainly not the first time the entertainment world has used a show branded for young viewers to push an pro-LGBT agenda.
In July, for example, Netflix released a rebooted series, “The Baby-Sitters Club,” featuring a transgender character named Bailey, who is played by Kai Shappley, a 9-year-old transgender girl from Texas. Shappley’s birth name was Joseph.
The streaming service promoted the show by highlighting a scene in which one of the other characters, Mary Anne, rushes Bailey to the hospital, where a nurse and doctor “misgender” Shappley’s character.
In the scene, which feels incredibly forced, Mary Anne sternly tells the medical workers, “I know that you guys are busy, but as you would see, if you look at her and not her chart, Bailey is not a boy. And by treating her like one, you are completely ignoring who she is. You’re making her feel insignificant and humiliated, and that’s not gonna help her feel good or safe or calm.”
“So,” she continued, “from here on out, please recognize her for who she is. And if at all possible, could you find me a non-blue hospital gown?”
The doctor, visibly shaken and embarrassed, hurriedly said, “I apologize.”