novainlustris:

nicodiangelzo:

can we talk about how alex hirsch has flat out said in a reddit forum that he would love to have a queer character on gravity falls but he legally can’t do that so when the episode “The Love God” came out Mabel was in a rainbow sweater

For anyone wondering how/why he can’t “legally” do it, it’s not any kind of United States law. It has to do with the laws in certain foreign countries where the show airs.

In some countries where Gravity Falls airs (China and Russia come to mind in particular), it is explicitly illegal to depict a queer character in a show for all-ages/children/families/etc. If it were to have a queer character, it could get the show and possibly the entire network banned from that country. This is also why in Adventure Time, Pen and Olivia have said at panels and such that while PB and Marceline being exes is canon, they unfortunately can’t bring it up in the show proper (or at least not state it outright).

It’s important to know this because I think it’s generally believed that the non-inclusion of queer characters/relationships in shows like Gravity Falls and Adventure Time is because of some executive decision, fear they’ll get angry letters from fundamentalist parents or something, when this isn’t actually the case. Creators have said the executives themselves are okay with it, but getting your show or maybe your whole network banned in another country is understandably not a good business decision. Foreign markets are actually really important to keeping a show going sometimes, there’s been a few I know of that have been cancelled simply because foreign branches of the network didn’t want to air it. So next time you’re wondering why your favorite cartoon doesn’t have a character that’s gay, lesbian, transgender, non-binary or so on, you can blame Chinese and Russian law.

The whole thing still really sucks though…