As we approach Pride month, there's a good chance children will be learning about the cause for the celebration not from their parents but from television show characters, whether they're meant for children to watch or not.
I'm talking about "Blue's Clues" and the spin-off "Blue's Clues & You!" As Julie Scagell with the Scary Mommy blog just absolutely gushed over, "Blue’s Clues is getting in on the action with an adorable song and video featuring a carton [sic] version of Drag Race star, Nina West."
Words appear on the screen, indicating that children are very much expected to sing along.
As Scagell describes about the video, which is a literal parade with floats:
The Blue’s Clues sing-along video showcases families with two moms, two dads, ace, pans, trans, non-binary, and bi parents as they make their way through the parade route, flags flying proudly.
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The parade continues one by one, two by two, eight by eight, all through the town. It’s colorful, full of joy, and West belts out the “Families Go Marching” tune effortlessly. It’s a celebration of family and helps educate young kids about how people choose to live and that they should be proud of who they are and where they come from.
The video also features an “allies of the queer community” float to show kids how we can love our LGBTQ+ friends and family and show up to support them whenever we can. Pride Month is a perfect time to do this but that support needs to be there all the time to remind everyone around us that inclusion and acceptance is the way to go.
One float has trans members of a beaver family, with one of the beaver children wearing a skirt representing the transgender flag, indicating the child beaver may be depicted as trans.
Another has a family of "kings and queens."
In closing, the video tells children to ask their parents to subscribe to the YouTube channel.
The video comes from the official "Blue's Clues & You!" YouTube account, also with a suggestion to "Try YouTube Kids," which you can click to "Learn More." The comments for the video, which was released on Friday, have been turned off.
It turns out that this is not the only way in which "Blue's Clues & You" is celebrating Pride month. On May 19, the same channel posted a nearly 6 minute video of "Celebrating Pride Month With Blue & Josh! Opening Mail."
The Scary Mommy blog article also directs readers to a Mombian article which notes this isn't the first time the Nick Jr. show has broached the topic. "This isn’t the first LGBTQIA-inclusive move by the show. Last February, it featured an array of Pride flags in an ABC video showing “how each letter of the alphabet is special.” Now, it turns to numbers to showcase queer Pride!," the Friday article for the site read.According to Scary Mommy and Mombian, Lindz Amer of Queer Kid Stuff, whose home page invites viewers to "LET'S SPREAD QUEER JOY through lgbtq+ and social justice media for all ages."
Regardless of whether or not parents have decided how and when they want their children to learn about topics such as LGBT families, and if they want to involve channels and videos meant for pre school age children, if a child stumbles along YouTube Kids videos, these may end up being what he or she watches.
