WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – U.S. Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) is calling on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to add “LGBTQ content” to the television ratings system, to help parents steer clear of sexual indoctrination in children’s entertainment.
In a letter to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, Banks says that the message that differences between men and women “can be erased” is now a “social contagion” and “is being smuggled into programming aimed at young audiences. It is being taught in schools, it is on library shelves, and it is present in television shows aimed at children.”
He cites findings from Concerned Women for America (CWA) that 40 percent of TV-Y7 and TV-G shows on Netflix contain LGBT content, with homosexual or “transgender” characters finding their way into such established children’s programs as Sesame Street, My Little Pony, and The Magic School Bus, all with “pedigrees that have earned them parents’ trust.”
“Courts have consistently upheld efforts by state and federal entities, including the Federal Communications Commission, to exercise their constitutional powers to limit children’s access to unsolicited sexual content,” Banks writes, and “Parents have a fundamental interest in directing the upbringing of their children.”
“The FCC’s proposal to consider adding LGBTQ content to the TV rating system is a commonsense exercise of its authority,” the letter declares. “The TV industry’s rating system lets parents know when programming includes violence and other kinds of sexual content. The rating system gives parents the opportunity to block objectionable programming before their children are exposed to it. Clarifying that gender identity deserves the same warning as violence and nudity ensures that conversations about sexuality happen in the home first.”
The FCC is currently soliciting public feedback on general reforms to the television ratings system, including the specific question, “Are parents aware that children watching programs rated TV-Y, TV-Y7, and TV-G may contain the discussion or promotion of gender identity themes? Should such programming be rated differently or contain relevant descriptions so that parents can make informed decisions?”
Over the last decade in particular, LGBT activists in the entertainment industry have aggressively infused LGBT awareness, acceptance, and celebration into programming aimed at increasingly younger audiences.
Major examples include Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time, Steven Universe, and Clarence; PBS’s Sesame Street and Arthur, Netflix’s Voltron: Legendary Defender and She-Ra & the Princesses of Power; Nickelodeon’s The Legend of Korra, The Loud House, and Blue’s Clues; Disney’s Star vs. The Forces of Evil and Doc McStuffins, Hasbro’s Power Rangers, Amazon’s Danger & Eggs, and Entertainment One’s Peppa Pig.
Whether intended to promote social agendas or merely to appease vocal and persistent “representation” demands, this infusion of children’s shows with LGBT characters and messages inevitably forces families into discussions about gender and sexuality with young children, as well as sets impressionable young viewers on a collision course between the shows’ simple, one-sided, feel-good presentation of LGBT issues and parents’ own values and Christian morality, as well as the health of children.