The year 2020 was tough for everyone, children and adults alike. Most school-age kids were forced to attend school virtually, at least for part of the year. This, combined with lockdowns, caused screen time use to surge.
Article originally published at Daily Signal.
More than usual, parents may fear kids aren’t learning well or are being exposed to things they aren’t yet mature enough to handle. On this, their intuition may be correct: 2020 saw an increase in LGBTQ-friendly marketing targeted at kids.
Cartoon Network–whose primary audience is children—recently sent out this tweet:
Here's to not only normalizing gender pronouns, but respecting them, too 💖 Whether you use he/she/them or something else, we acknowledge and LOVE you! Toolkit 👉 https://t.co/ZbhthybrdC
🎨: Steeeeevn/Instagram#Pronouns #YYAAC #NBJCOnTheMove #LetsGetFree #CartoonNetwork pic.twitter.com/koceQue1aF
— Cartoon Network (@cartoonnetwork) December 14, 2020
“Here’s to not only normalizing gender pronouns, but respecting them, too,” Cartoon Network’s tweet reads. “Whether you use he/she/them or something else, we acknowledge and LOVE you!”
In November, I covered similar efforts by two other somewhat kid-friendly brands, Oreo and Tampax.
A loving world starts with respecting others. pic.twitter.com/u6lg5XZLkJ
— OREO Cookie (@Oreo) October 18, 2020
Fact: Not all women have periods. Also a fact: Not all people with periods are women. Let's celebrate the diversity of all people who bleed! 💙🎨: @gobeeharris #mythbusting #periodtruths #transisbeautiful pic.twitter.com/5s1416cZBw
— Tampax US (@Tampax) September 15, 2020
Earlier this year, the TV channel Nickelodeon encouraged its young audience to accept transgender individuals.
Today is International #TransDayOfVisibility 💕 We’re celebrating transgender people around the world and the courage it takes to live their truth #TDOV pic.twitter.com/u4gZsThwlB
— Nickelodeon (@Nickelodeon) March 31, 2020
Brands that provide products or entertainment typically reserved for a younger audience have been transparent, honest, and even persuasive that they are using their brand to look appealing and progressive, and to normalize LGBTQ issues, particularly transgender-related ideas.
Twisting language to communicate political groupthink is hardly a new concept, but it has been a hallmark to capitalizing on the LGBTQ movement’s primary goal: Forcing others to accept these individuals to the point where they are not just equal to others but entitled.
I could be wrong here, but it’s also the first time I’ve really seen children targeted as much as adults are, if not more.
It’s not just brands that do this overtly. Production studios do it too. Every year for the past several years, The LGBTQ rights and media-monitoring group GLAAD has released its Studio Responsibility Index, which it says “maps the quantity, quality and diversity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) characters in films released by eight major motion picture studios during the 2019 calendar year.”
The films were released by major studios such as Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, and Warner Bros.
GLAAD says that its report “is intended to serve as a road map toward increasing fair, accurate and inclusive LGBTQ representation in film.”
Of the films released by major studios in 2019, according to GLAAD, a total of 22 or 18.6% “contained characters identified as LGBTQ,” which the group counts as a “slight improvement.”
Numbers for 2020 aren’t available yet, but based on observations and anecdotes, the year wasn’t too shabby for LGBTQ representation in media and marketing.
It’s safe to say that LGBTQ representation in multimedia–from social media and television to marketing and films—has shown a slow but steady uptick in these ideas percolating, sometimes smack dab in our kids’ faces. This is frustrating on several fronts.
For starters, when other things are marketed to children, such as religion or politics, outrage inevitably ensues. The woke masses cry out that Christianity or conservatism is trying to indoctrinate their children.
The double standard is obvious and you need not be a conservative or a religious person to see it.
All this LGBTQ representation, via brand marketing or entertainment, could make a child think that these ideas are normal, healthy, and exist happily everywhere. This could not be further from the truth.
The transgender youth population is relatively small, although it’s rapidly increasing. In June 2019, a Gallup poll reported that Americans greatly overestimate the size of the gay and transgender population.
That trend reinforces the thesis by Wall Street Journal writer Abigail Shrier, author of “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters,” that transgender ideology is acting more as a contagion than a closeted societal norm waiting to break free.
The transgender youth population also is at increased risk for depression and suicide, despite its ability to live freely because of nondiscrimination laws, to socially or medically transition, and to force others to use their “correct” pronouns.
Debilitating unhappiness in a free country suggests that the issue may not be bigotry but the application of a failed cure because the illness is misdiagnosed.
In a year when more young people were online, glued to screens more than ever before, it’s discouraging to see the persistence and consistency of brands and entertainment targeting children and youth and encouraging normalization of LGBTQ concepts among those precious resources.
Of all the things the marketing and entertainment industries could do for our children–encourage them to read, play, be kind, respect their elders, reject foul language, or abstain from sex–they instead encourage the twisting of language, the acceptance of a “norm” that harms young people, and the perpetuation of a myth that the LGBTQ community is marginalized.
It’s time for these industries to stick to telling stories, packaging cookies, or making people laugh–and leave our kids alone.
COVID-19 lockdowns are taking down an independent news outlet
Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the resurgence of lockdowns that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We need approximately $17,300 to stay afloat through March when we hope the economy will be more open, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. In November, 2020, we hit 1.2 million visitors.
We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
