First Emmys for children heavily focuses on LGBT content, 'woke' shows aimed at kids
By Nikolas Lanum | Fox News
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The first annual Children’s and Family Emmy Awards had numerous speeches and awards focused on LGBTQ messaging in an event catering to kids from "infancy to age 15."
The two-night award show, created by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, bestowed awards on numerous productions containing discussions on gender ideology, and winners occasionally made references to similar progressive topics.
Of all the programs awarded and subsequent acceptance speeches this past weekend, 1 in 4 of them included some information regarding gender identity or sexual orientation.
The first night was hosted by dancer and TikTok star JoJo Siwa, who often refers to herself as "pansexual." At the start of the show, XOMG pop group, a dance troupe of young girls dressed in futuristic rainbow-colored outfits, performed onstage before Siwa introduced herself.
"I’m a pop star, a reality tv star, a dancer, a singer, a choreographer, a social media influencer—some would even call me a gay icon," she said.
"Muppet Babies" received an award for Outstanding Writing for a Preschool Animated Program. The ceremony specifically highlighted the controversial "Gonzo-rella" episode, in which the character Gonzo tries on dresses and uses they/them programs to identify as non-binary.
Speaking with Fox News Digital, "Heroes for Liberty" children’s book series editor Bethany Mandel said that content that introduces "gender bending" philosophy, like "Gonzo-rella," has detrimental consequences for kids. She said developing children often categorize people around them by gender when they first begin to speak.
"When you take away this very primal basic way to categorize and understand the world around them, you’re talking away a developmental tool that can’t be replaced. And that’s what they’re doing," Mandel said.
She also noted that between 2017 and 2019, an entertainment industry insider conducted a study that found a 222% increase in representation of LGBTQ characters on children’s television shows.
Later in the show, Sesame Street’s "Friends with a Penguin" won the award for best original show. In the episode, LGBTQ celebrity Billy Porter wears a gown and sings about his unorthodox friendship. Porter has on several occasions worn dresses to make a political statement about Black masculinity.
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Kathryn Raio Rende, the song's composer, accepted the award and gave a special shoutout to "all the LGBTQUIA kids" across the world, before walking offstage.
Sesame Street won again that night for Outstanding Preschool Series, with the ceremony showing a clip from the episode "Family Day," in which a character introduces her brother and his husband.
Mandel says that content like this will continue to win accolades as part of the "woke" Hollywood club’s feedback loop and was unsurprised by the number of awards handed out to shows discussing gender identity. She surmised that those shows won awards because they were representative of the overall content currently ingratiated in children’s entertainment.
"They want to promote this idea of introducing all of this content to children because they’re trying to break ‘generational hate.’ And what it comes down to is they think that parents are not doing a good enough job, and they’re not enlightened enough—they’re not woke enough," she added. "And it’s their job and their mission to fix that and to fix children."
Kristi Reed, who worked on Netflix’s "CentaurWorld," won the award for Outstanding Voice Direction for an Animated Series. During her speech, she discussed her childhood growing up as a "queer kid in a small town," and asserted that programs like the ones shown at the award show had the power to "erase generations of hate" that tells the bullies of the world to "suck it."
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Netflix’s "Heartstopper" was the big winner of the night, bringing home four awards, including Young Teen Series. The show is a romantic coming-of-age drama centered on a relationship between two teen boys in England. Many of the characters in the show have diverse sexual identities. One scene shows a young boy forcefully push another up against a wall and kiss him.
"Most of all, with Heartstopper we wanted the next generation of LGBTQUIA kids to see themselves in a story about queer joy, about love and about acceptance," Executive Producer Patrick Walters said during the acceptance speech.
During an acceptance speech for Netflix’s "We The People," created by Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground production company, Executive Producer Chris Nee came on stage in a pink Women’s March beanie.
Another executive producer, Elizabeth Ito, who worked on Netflix’s "City of Ghosts," urged the Emmys to return the land she accepted the award on to indigenous people of the area.
The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences did not return Fox News Digital’s request for comment on how many people watched the award show and whether they felt all the content was appropriate for children ages 0-15.
