If there's one thing that conservatives like to be loud about on the internet, it's LGBTQ+ representation in children's media.
This refrain has been sung again—this time in retrospect—about Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, an animated show that features, among many other things (like dinosaurs!), a plotline of two adolescent teen girls finding age-appropriate romance with each other.
This storyline alone would have incensed conservatives, but the show also included a sweet first kiss scene between the new couple, and homophobic conservatives lost their minds, apparently.
But! This show is over three years old at this point, so why now?
Elon Musk, that's why. The X/Twitter owner last month called for his followers to cancel their Netflix subscriptions over LGBTQ+-inclusive shows, kicked off by a right-wing backlash to another show, Dead End: Paranormal Park, which has a transgender character.
The creator of Camp Cretaceous, Zack Stentz, was then recently forced to defend his past work and creative decisions on the same platform that Musk controls.
"We were just trying to dramatize the full range of human experience, which includes same-sex relationships. That's all."
He went further, saying that the main aims of the show were not about teaching children about same-sex relationships, but more about the usual things one might want children to learn from a TV show: strength, intelligence, and believing in oneself.
He wrote:
"Believe in yourself, take care of your friends, and help others (and animals!) where you can."
Many people adored the show, and remembered it fondly.
People brought up the double standard in media about showing different-sex versus same-sex relationships on screen.
A couple of folks were more concerned about the actual scary things in the show that they might need to shield their kids from.
LGBTQ+ representation, even if it's the dinosaurs, is baked into the narrative.
Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous can be streamed on Netflix.
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