Cartoon Network Airs Same-Sex Couple in Children’s Cartoon

There have been plenty of homosexual cartoon characters in shows like Family Guy, American Dad, and other shows whose audience tends to skew older, but for the first time, Cartoon Network has aired a same-sex couple on a show catered for children.

The joke may be a little tired: a lonely woman looking for her blind date thinks she’s found him when an attractive man walks in a restaurant, but instead, he kisses his boyfriend. But the sentiment is wide awake: a song plays in the background with the lyrics “love is love.”

Spencer Rothbell, a voice actor on the cartoon, revealed through his Twitter that they had to fight to include the scene.

‘I just watched Neighborhood Grill tonight. I seriously want to know if you guys had to fight with CN to get a gay couple there,’ one Twitter user tweeted at Rothbell.

His response: ‘Yeah, originally the guy had flowers and they kissed on the mouth.’

Rothbell later blogged:’It’s such a minor throwaway moment but I guess it’s better than nothing. Maybe one day the main character can be gay and it won’t be a big deal.’

Cartoon Network has debated same-sex couples within its cartoons before. We’ve previously covered it here. Writers for Adventure Time have admitted their two main girl characters have dated in the past, though scrapped the storyline from overtly talking about their relationship to letting the viewer make their own conclusion.

  [H/T: GayStarNews]