April 23, 2020
Gay Dads on 'DuckTales' Prompt Hissy from Hate Group 'One Million Moms'
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 3 MIN.
"Duck" and cover! Numerically challenged hate group "One Million Moms" dropped the TV remote and snatched at their pearls when Disney's animated series "DuckTales" introduced a pair of mallard dads.
Quicker than a waterfowl, the group's vitriolic rhetoric took flight, with accusations of the "indoctrination" of children and pandering to "the Left" ringing out with the warbly distortion of a duck call... if not the unmistakable hyper-shrillness of a dog whistle.
The group posted its diatribe in the form of a - to quote from a text at its website - "WARNING!"
Yes, Will Robinson, watch out! Gay penguins were just the start! It's just quackers!
Shrieked the apocalyptic manifesto posted at the "Million Moms" site:
DuckTales [sic; no italics or quotes to indicate that the word is a title] is not the same cartoon parents grew up watching.
No kidding. That probably has something to do with the fact that - as the inaptly-named group itself proceeded to admit - the series, which airs on Disney XD, is a "reboot" of the original 1987 series, which ran for four seasons. The new series premiered in 2017.
Text at the hate group's site continued with an explanation of the episode in question:
Violet, a friend of Huey, Dewey, and Louie, has two dads as seen in the first episode of Season 3. In the same episode, it is also revealed that Violet's dads have adopted her best friend Lena. Violet says, in reference to Lena, "My sister from a couple of misters."
A same-sex couple offering a loving home to children in need! What dire sign of the End Times could possibly be next?
How about the blog of series producer Frank Angones? He took to Tumblr to tell fans that while the show works hard at representing the full spectrum of the real word within the confines of its fantasy universe - one that features anthropomorphic ducks - the source material, with its many "pre-existing relationships" made it necessary for the show to resort to what Angones referred to as the " 'queer representation through parents and background characters' trope".
Fumed the group:
It is apparent that this particular producer is not finished with indoctrinating children by exposing them to homosexual relationships through a facade of normalcy.
Speaking of fantasy universes, it's only for some that same-sex relationships and parents who are two moms or two dads don't exist. For many, if not most, denizens of the real world, such families are part and parcel of society - and, indeed, the extended families, neighborhoods, church groups, and social circles of most people.
But reflecting the world as it is in a fantasy for the enjoyment of viewers who might have same-sex parents themselves, or have friends who do, seemingly constituted a grave offense for the hate group, which posted a handy 'n' convenient online petition addressed to the CEO of Disney, Bib Chapek.
Read the screed:
I do not agree with the LGBTQ agenda you are forcing on families and children in the reboot series DuckTales [sic - no italics or quotes to indicate that the word is a title]. My family will not watch DuckTales nor support your company as long as the network veers away from family-friendly entertainment. I will encourage my friends to do the same.
Perhaps those "one million" moms missed the memo: The counter at the site's petition stood at a little over 10,000.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
