Disney's first gay couple
The last weekend of January sure was an eventful one in the pop culture world. Sunday night was the 56th Grammy Music Awards and, although I didn’t have the patience to sit through the entire awards show, the performances were nothing short of amazing. Besides, thanks to my Twitter feed, I found out who won, who lost, and all the cute little gossip in between.
But I wanted to shed light on another phenomenon that happened the same night on cable television: the Disney channel show “Good Luck Charlie” made a great stride toward gender equality by introducing an LGBTQ couple on the show. Basically the show focuses on the Duncan family and their shenanigans growing up as a middle class, White, American family. Charlie, the youngest of the kids, has a play date with one of her classmates, Taylor. Charlie’s parents, Amy and Bob, talk about how Taylor’s parents are also coming over to hang out and they grow confused as to who Taylor’s mom is because they were introduced to two different people. When Taylor and her parents come over, lo and behold, they discover Taylor has two moms.
Before this episode aired, I remember distinctly seeing some articles floating around the internet about Disney introducing a gay couple and I remember thinking, “Wow. It’s about time!” Because most of the pop culture world tuned in to the Grammys, I felt like this event got lost in translation. We need to show Disney channel some love too! (Wow…didn’t think I’d ever catch myself saying that.)
The Disney channel has always had a reputation for introducing squeaky clean child stars that for whatever reason become questionable role models for today’s youth. However, I feel this important leap towards equality just goes to show that Disney has still got it in them. I personally hope a lot of children and teenagers watch this episode because it’s about time we start normalizing a variety of family structures and depictions of relationships on mainstream television — especially mainstream television that kids watch because, as we all know, they’re the most susceptible to internalizing the information they see in the media at this age.
Although I would still love to see more families of color and actors with more size diversity represented, I have to give Disney props for taking a step in the right direction. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that the fight against injustice is a long, winding road and we’re battling against centuries of oppression that has become normalized in our society. Any step counts and deserves to be recognized.
It’s also worth mentioning that the Grammys did their part to honor love by marrying diverse couples during Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ performance of “Same Love” with Queen Latifah officiating and Madonna making a guest appearance. My heart cannot handle all these feels, guys. I definitely cried during their performance and I am just so happy that people like them use their platforms to promote equality and change.
As one of my favorite YouTubers tweeted that night: “It was a great night to be gay.”