Steven Universe: Eh, I don’t really feel like saying “girlfriend” or “wife”. Maybe they’re together. They have a special connection…
(gets violently shoved aside)
The Loud House/Craig of the Creek/The Owl House: Pfft, amateur. “My GIRLFRIEND Sam and I…” “I’m texting my GIRLFRIEND, mind your business.” “Luz’s new GF showed her…”
Can we not do this thing? Do you realize that Rebecca had to fight for what we got with Rupphire and literally risked her job? and Pearl and Rose. Like, there is no need to knock other shows down because of Lumity.
These kids today, I tell you what. In my day you had to bury your girlfriends under subtext and then end the series when the truth was revealed.
Risked her job, hell, it’s an open secret now that the Rupphire wedding (which, may I remind folks, was the first queer wedding in a kids’ cartoon, which is a BIG DEAL) is why everything about the rest of the series felt rushed. They had to scramble to tell the rest of the story because they took a gamble and the network retaliated by shortening their production time.
Rebecca Sugar and the crewniverse risked the entire show getting flat-out cancelled in order to show that wedding, only for people to say it “wasn’t progressive enough” and was “giving in to stereotypes” to put Ruby in a wedding dress. Never mind that Ruby kept getting dubbed over as a guy in localization, Sapphire was unmistakably feminine in every version, and putting Ruby in the dress was a flagrant way to say, “fuck you, you can’t pretend this is a straight couple; this is a queer couple and a queer wedding.”
Dana Terrace has said that The Owl House only exists with its intended queerness because of what Rebecca Sugar and her team accomplished with Steven Universe. Hell, there are multiple members of the Steven Universe team who went on to work on the other shows mentioned in the OP–Steven Sugar, for example, who is Rebecca Sugar’s brother and inspiration for SU in the first place (as well a background artist on the show), is currently an artist on The Owl House. There are people who got their start on Steven Universe who now only have the opportunity to tell more queer stories because of Steven Universe’s success.
I’m not even 30 years old yet and I’m still old enough to remember when being gay was fully illegal in the United States. Not gay marriage, but literally just BEING GAY. It wasn’t that long ago, and the fact that today in 2021 I can turn on the TV and watch gay cartoons intended for children? I never thought I’d see it. Fucking ever.
So let’s stop pitting queer creators and media against each other, shall we?
I was with you to the point you said you remember when being gay way fully illegal in the US bc no you don’t. You might remember when the last states repealed their sodomy laws by Supreme Court order in 2003. But at that point over half the US had already done so, (Illinois did it in the 1960s’) so it was very definitely not fully illegal in the US. Like the rest of this is good commentary but that particularly is not it.
Fun fact: if it’s illegal at the federal level, it’s fully illegal.
Four men arrested for breaking sodomy law in Maryland police raid
Hmm. I don’t actually remember when the last states repealed their sodomy laws, because no they didn’t. Lawrence v. Texas made these laws unconstitutional, but did not remove them from force. You can still get arrested, you can still get prosecuted, just because the case would be an “easy win” for the defense doesn’t mean it can’t still be used to target and harass gay people, waste their time and money forcing them to defend themselves.
Like this incident from (checks calander) last week.
Also even if they had all been repealed in 2003 (and oh how they weren’t), 2003 wasn’t that long ago?
it absolutely behooves everyone and especially young queer folk to learn and respect the struggles involved in getting your current favourite piece of media to where it is now. every new progressive piece stands on the shoulders of the one before it, all paving the way with whatever baby steps they could get pushed through.
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