Now they feel the need to make SpongeBob a gay character

His best friend is a beaver. Ain’t no way he isn’t at least bi.

 

The tweet doesn't say he's gay or even imply it. LGBTQ+ refers to a pretty diverse spectrum of human/sponge sexuality and gender identity. Queer as an umbrella term also includes people who identify as asexual.

 

OMG I'm outraged. Did anyone see Buggs Bunny and notice that poor confused rabbit is into cross dressing. Won't anyone protect the children. The horror.

 

SpongeBob been gay…

everyone knew it

 

It shouldn't be an ethical dilemma to both permit kids to be kids and gay people to be gay, but press releases about a cartoon sponge's sexual orientation benefit no one. Human sexuality shouldn't be a topic for children's entertainment, and the sexual orientation of a cartoon character, puppet, or real-life actor or performer is not relevant to the lives of children who are years away from developing a sexual identity of their own.

Gay and lesbian people exist and live in our society and no one should feel a need to be alarmed by it, nor should anyone try to suppress their visibility, especially within popular culture and performing art, but a four-year-old is learning letters and numbers and songs and how to play well with others on Sesame Street . It's not age appropriate to be highlighting the nuances of each puppet's sexual orientation. A four-year-old doesn't wonder what kind of relationship Bert and Ernie are in. A four year old's imagination isn't inclined to create lurid fan fic about Sesame Street characters. That vocabulary does not exist. They want to sing Rubber Ducky with them.

My all-time-favorite cameo on Sesame Street was Little Richard's rendition of it. But just as no moral puritan would be doing kids any favors by inciting a moral panic to keep Little Richard from singing to them, an activist using the moment to preach his backstory of oppression growing up poor, gay and black in 40s-50s Georgia wouldn't either. It's good for adults to be aware of it and have empathy for it, but it's not relevant to getting small children excited about taking a bath.

 

You know Smithers was originally straight… and Black.

Fox is forcing gay white men on me!