On its recently launched streaming service Disney+, the entertainment giant featured a lesbian kissing scene between teenagers in its family drama, Big Shots, starring John Stamos.
The series follows the life of Marvyn Korn (Stamos) as he goes from big-time pro basketball coach to the coach of a girl’s private high school basketball team after he is fired from the pros for bad behavior. The show also features a lesbian teen named Carolyn (Tisha Custodio), and in last week’s episode, Carolyn fell in love with another student, Harper (Darcy Rose Byrnes).
The episode took its name, “Everything To Me,” from the purported title of a song that Carolyn — also known as “Mouse” in the series — wrote for her new love interest. Late in the episode, Mouse plays the song she wrote for Harper. The moment leads to the show’s first underage lesbian kiss.
In the song, Mouse’s lyrics include the lines, “You don’t always smile with your eyes. It’s not creepy that I notice everything you do.”
Hollywood has pushed an industry-wide effort to insert LGBT themes, characters, and storylines into television — especially kid’s programs — for years, responding to lobbying from groups such as GLAAD.
GLAAD has spent years browbeating studios to increase the representation of LGBTQ characters in various programs. Major corporate TV networks, including Nickelodeon, PBS, Cartoon Network, and others, have proudly joined that effort.
For instance, in joining a “strong push” to add transgender and gay storylines to G-rated shows to normalize LGTBQ characters in kid’s shows, Nickelodeon became directly involved in encouraging LGBTQ stories by specifically asking GLAAD to get involved in the production of its shows aimed at kids.
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