The popular Nickelodeon children's show Blues Clues decided to celebrate June as Pride Month by adding a new YouTube video featuring a cartoon pride parade led by a fun-loving drag queen.
The queen in the clip—voiced by RuPaul's Drag Race contestant, former Entertainer of the Year winner and Ohio icon Nina West—led viewers in a sing-along full of inclusive lyrics celebrating queer families, diverse gender and sexual identities, the disabled and the communal spirit of allyship.
Some lyrics are:
"This family has two mommies."
"They love each other so proudly and they all go marching in the big parade."
"All families are made differently and they love each other so proudly."
"Allies to the queer community can love their queer friends so proudly…"
"...Love is love is love, you see, and everyone should love proudly."
You can watch the full video here:
Yahoo! News spoke to Lindz Amer, who produces the Queer Kid Stuff video series.
Amer consulted with Nickelodeon to make sure the images and lyrical content conveyed the inclusive spirit everyone aimed for.
"I definitely felt a huge responsibility consulting with the team."
"It's the same responsibility I feel in all of the work that I do bringing LGBTQ representation to children's media."
"Queer folks are not a monolith and I can't possibly make every single queer person happy, especially considering the profound lack of LGBTQ [representation], especially in preschool content."
"All we can do is try our best and I think we did a pretty good job!"
Amer was happy to share the creative process was exactly what they'd hoped it would be.
"The team was an absolute dream to work with and it's for sure the queerest thing I've ever seen happen in the preschool space."
"My main goals were twofold: to try my best to bring specificity to the video, that's where the song's vocabulary came in using words like queer, trans, non-binary, ace, pan and bi."
"And second, to expand the definition of family as it applies to the queer community, so acknowledging chosen family was a big part of that."
While many people applauded Nickelodeon's choice to create more inclusive content for children, plenty of conservatives were clutching their pearls.
Did the show air a warning prior to this to warn parents of the content?— Naturally Immunized Capitalist (@Naturally Immunized Capitalist) 1622315305
The predatory Blue\u2019s Clues segment doesn\u2019t surprise me, because kids are always the unconsenting subjects of leftist social experiments, from population control to the redefinition of gender and sexuality to communism itself. History shows this. It\u2019s gross, but it\u2019s true.— Allie Beth Stuckey (@Allie Beth Stuckey) 1622314361
One person, posting on a tweet from the blog Not the Bee, was ready to pack it in.
"A team of adults really made this cartoon propaganda clip for preschoolers to watch, complete with a drag queen holding a microphone with a revolutionary fist logo on it, singing about the wonders of gay and nonbinary parents, trans families, and 'Ace, Bi and Pan grown ups.' "
"Just come take us now, Lord, please! 😩"
kinda sad to see it end up like this— Timothy Mark! (@Timothy Mark!) 1622567352
In case you thought America just might survive God\u2019s wrath...— Pil9rim (@Pil9rim) 1622566956
Many people, however, were thrilled to see such forward-thinking from Nickelodeon.
If you see me crying over the Blue\u2019s Clues Pride parade just know I\u2019m very happy pic.twitter.com/thgTK1qodo— Gretchen (@Gretchen) 1622227443
why did blue\u2019s clues acknowledge my identity\u2019s existence before wellesley college health servicespic.twitter.com/r5uKmC20iy— ann zhao (@ann zhao) 1622229444
i didn't have blue's clues kicking off pride month on my 2021 bingo card but here we are and here i am sobbing over itpic.twitter.com/vUs5xRUlmz— madi (@madi) 1622304348
I'm still blown away by how extremely inclusive the Blue's Clues pride parade video was. So many different identities are represented in one video. Probably one of my favorite pride related videos of all time. \n\nThe homophobic Karens are shaking in their pants.— Hannah Rite \u221e \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83c\udf08 HAPPY PRIDE 2021!!! (@Hannah Rite \u221e \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83c\udf08 HAPPY PRIDE 2021!!!) 1622297447
Blue's Clues literally featured a queer nonbinary disabled dolphin, the rest of the media needs to buck up their ideas.pic.twitter.com/wjH0GgM28q— Erin Ekins (she/her) (@Erin Ekins (she/her)) 1622318891
thinking about the lesbian alligators on blue\u2019s cluespic.twitter.com/44eWRC0SCt— ani \u200e\u2735 cishets dni (@ani \u200e\u2735 cishets dni) 1622237875
With plenty of days remaining in Pride Month, and the bar clearly set high by the minds behind Blue's Clues, who knows what we'll see in the weeks to come.
Meanwhile, you can see Nina West's 2008 Entertainer of the Year evening gown performance—inspiration for many copies—here:
