Education
Pride Month 2020: Introduce Kids To Gender & Sexuality With Their Favourite LGBTQ Cartoons
Learning about gender identity the fun way.
There is no second thought to the point that we’ll witness wider gender inclusivity if we educate our students well. Rather than shunning and shrugging on the topic, we can speak to them about the normalcy of co-existence of every sexual orientation with harmony. Considering the walls built around this topic, especially in our society, it can be difficult for educators to figure out a way to educate their students on LGBTQ+ facts and rights.
As the world is celebrating Pride Month in June 2020, you, the educators, can use this time to teach your students about different sexual orientations through the famous LGBTQ+ animated/cartoon characters.
The world has opened its arms and the testament to this is the popular kids' network, Nickelodeon, which finally hinted at the Spongebob Squarepants’ homosexuality. This came in as the network celebrated its LGBTQ+ characters for this year’s Pride Month.
The network tweeted, “Celebrating #Pride with the LGBTQ+ community and their allies this month and every month.” As the tweet spoke of LGBTQ allies, the network uploaded Spongebob’s picture alongside already known and celebrated homosexual characters like Schwoz Schwartz from Henry Danger and Korra from Avatar: The Legend of Korra.
Celebrating #Pride with the LGBTQ+ community and their allies this month and every month ????
(????: by @ramzymasri) pic.twitter.com/pENmTaQB0h— Nickelodeon (@Nickelodeon) June 13, 2020
Before Spongebob, many other animated characters came out of the closet and embraced their natural beautiful self. So, here is a list of 5 that you can refer to while opening the doors of LGBTQ-related conversation to your students:
1. Maggie Sawyer
This was one of the first popular characters that came out openly. She is the Captain of the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit from the Superman Animated series, who realised she was a lesbian and hid it from the world for a long time before she came out openly.
2. Rick Sanchez
Rick from Rick & Morty is a pansexual character. One of the most loved shows of the current time, it stresses on the character’s sexuality with subtlety.
3. Gangstalicious
He is a closet homosexual, who pretends to be straight until he decides to come out in open.
4. Stewie Griffin
Stewie is a homosexual character from one of the most loved animated shows over the years, Family Guy. His orientation was just recently confirmed in the show.
5. Waylon Smithers
Wayon is a character from another most-loved animated series called The Simpsons. After 27 years, the show decided to reveal his sexual orientation as gay in the year 2016.