Most children are not aware of sexual orientation, but that doesn't mean they aren't aware of romance. It's treated as an essential aspect of every children's movie (or at least the “classics”), which is natural because love is an essential part of most people's lives. Yet, despite the emergence of same sex couples in other areas of pop culture, there are no such couples to be found in children's films.
There are glimmers of suggestion, such as Timon and Pumba in the Lion King, but there is nothing explicitly romantic. This omission perpetuates the problem of a lack of strong LGBTQ role models as teenagers and young adults start to discover their sexual identity. By failing to expose children to this type of diversity while they are young, we also fail to normalize and accept the various ways sexuality can be expressed.
Can we just acknowledge that Simba has two gay dads and that's awesome? And I'm keeping my hopes up for the day when we have a lesbian Disney princess.
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