Dana Terrace, creator of the Disney Channel's The Owl House, has been vocal about her desire to have "queer children" in the main cast of the animated series. The creator's dream of subjecting young children to queer theory in seemingly innocuous programming has now become a reality, as the character Luz Noceda, a 14-year-old Dominican-American girl, was revealed to be bisexual in a recent episode of the program.
Terrace, who describes herself as bisexual, believes that it is important for children to be exposed at a young age to the various types of sexual orientation. When Terrace first raised the idea of including "queer kids" in children's programming, Terrace said Disney officials did not initially warm to the idea of depicting gay and bisexual relationships to children.
In dev I was very open about my intention to put queer kids in the main cast. I'm a horrible liar so sneaking it in would've been hard haha. When we were greenlit I was told by certain Disney leadership that I could NOT represent any form of bi or gay relationship on the Channel.
— Dana Terrace (@DanaTerrace) August 9, 2020
But persistence paid off, and Terrace gave credit to new leadership at Disney for green lighting the channel's first bisexual character.
When I was first developing Owl House I always wanted to do a prom episode to make up for my own experiences. Back then PROM was an anagram for "Perennial Ritual Offering Maiden". I'm so INCREDIBLY grateful for the crew working to make this episode so badass. pic.twitter.com/Ak8dNVMAdo
— Dana Terrace (@DanaTerrace) August 9, 2020
Representation matters! Always fight to make what YOU want to see! As OH continues I can't wait to explore things that are important to me and my crew. Looking forward to the next chapter. ????
— Dana Terrace (@DanaTerrace) August 9, 2020
...Which is next week in WING IT LIKE WITCHES!
Thank you for watching! #TheOwlHouse pic.twitter.com/U8PHHT2g91
"Always fight to make what YOU want to see," Terrace wrote, with seemingly no regard to what content parents might want their young children consuming.
As reported by Breitbart, The Owl House isn't the first Disney product to feature LGBTQ protagonists. The Pixar movie Onward, released in March, included a lesbian police officer. Disney also released the short movie Out on its Disney+ streaming service back in March, which featured a gay male protagonist.
Many on Twitter were quick to ask, what happened to just letting children be children? One parent commented, "No more Owl house in my house."