Disney confirmed its cartoon about a teenage girl who takes up witchcraft after stumbling into the demon realm is the first to feature a lead character who is bisexual.
The protagonist of “The Owl House” is 14-year-old Dominican-American girl Luz Noceda, who reportedly expressed interest in male characters at some point but has since expressed interest in females, according to several sources. The show is about Noceda’s adventure in becoming a witch, despite having no magical powers.
Show creator Dana Terrace, whose pinned tweet as of Monday is “Anyway, be gay do witchcraft,” said she has long had the intention to feature queer children in the cast of the show and used a recent episode about Luz going to prom as revealing the character’s sexuality. Terrace identifies as bisexual.
“In dev I was very open about my intention to put queer kids in the main cast,” she tweeted. “I’m a horrible liar so sneaking it in would’ve been hard haha. When we were greenlit I was told by certain Disney leadership that I could NOT represent any form of bi or gay relationship on the Channel.”
“I’m bi! I want to write a bi character, dammit! Luckily my stubbornness paid off and now I am VERY supported by current Disney leadership,” she added.
When I was first developing Owl House I always wanted to do a prom episode to make up for my own experiences. Back then PROM was an anagram for "Perennial Ritual Offering Maiden". I'm so INCREDIBLY grateful for the crew working to make this episode so badass. pic.twitter.com/Ak8dNVMAdo
— Dana Terrace (@DanaTerrace) August 9, 2020
I'm bi! I want to write a bi character, dammit! Luckily my stubbornness paid off and now I am VERY supported by current Disney leadership. (Thank you @NashRiskin and team!) Not to mention the amazingness of this crew.
— Dana Terrace (@DanaTerrace) August 9, 2020
Spencer Wan, who was a former animation supervisor for the show, tweeted the original storyboard for the dance scene between Luz and Amity, writing that it was his “first time getting to do anything even remotely queer.”
“The storyboards for the dance,” he wrote. “This was a collaboration between Hayley Foster and myself. At some point I got carried away and timed it to Veo Lu Sluice by Kumi Tanioka. This was my first time getting to do anything even remotely queer, and I’ve never been prouder of any board.”
The storyboards for the dance. This was a collaboration between Hayley Foster and myself. At some point I got carried away and timed it to Veo Lu Sluice by Kumi Tanioka.
This was my first time getting to do anything even remotely queer, and I've never been prouder of any board. pic.twitter.com/r0ljIGRxTV
— Spencer Wan (@SpencerWan) August 9, 2020
PFLAG National lauded the bisexual cartoon, tweeting, “#VisibilityMatters. And we love hearing this about our friends at @Disney.”
#VisibilityMatters. And we love hearing this about our friends at @Disney.
Also #Lumity. That episode. Yes. ❤️ https://t.co/Btz9lyHmBA
— PFLAG National (@PFLAG) August 9, 2020
As The Daily Wire reported, Disney’s Pixar broke new ground in March when their film “Onward” became the first animated Disney feature to star an openly LGBTQ character:
The character, voiced by Lena Waithe, will be a lesbian police officer whose sexuality will be explicitly pointed out in the movie as opposed to just being implied, such as the alleged lesbian couple in “Finding Dory” or the “exclusively gay moment” in the “Beauty and the Beast” live-action remake.
Other children’s shows are featuring LGBTQ characters, such as the Netflix series “The Baby-Sitters Club,” which features a 9-year-old trans child named Bailey.
“When Bailey comes down with a fever, Mary Anne rushes her to the hospital, where two doctors misgender her,” one of the tweets from Netflix read. “Mary Anne firmly corrects them. Misgendering is traumatic. This is one of the baseline ways cisgender people can show up for the trans people in their life[.]”
When Bailey comes down with a fever, Mary Anne rushes her to the hospital, where two doctors misgender her. Mary Anne firmly corrects them.
Misgendering is traumatic. This is one of the baseline ways cisgender people can show up for the trans people in their life pic.twitter.com/EyrenC5QDK
— Netflix (@netflix) July 23, 2020