"Andi Mack" Character To Come Out as Gay: A Disney Channel First

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"Andi Mack" Character To Come Out as Gay: A Disney Channel First
by Greg Evans
Oct. 25, 2017


In a first for Disney Channel, a key character on its popular tween series "Andi Mack" will realize he’s gay and come out to his friends.

The story arc will mark the channel’s first depiction of a coming-out journey. The character – 13-year-old Cyrus Goodman, played by 15-year-old Joshua Rush – will begin his self-discovery in this Friday’s second season one-hour premiere episode.





“Andi Mack is a story about ‘tweens’ figuring out who they are,” said Disney Channel in a statement. “(Creator) Terri Minsky, the cast and everyone involved in the show takes great care in ensuring that it’s appropriate for all audiences and sends a powerful message about inclusion and respect for humanity.”

The Walt Disney Co. released a general statement on stories and characters, which reads, in part, “Disney remains committed to continuing to create characters that are accessible and relatable to all children.”

http://deadline.com/2017/10/disney-c...ay-1202194584/

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https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb...-character-and

By Tim Graham | October 28, 2017 6:05 PM EDT
Parents have realized that the Disney Channel brand isn’t about traditional family programming…it’s about Hollywood using every channel to promote “inclusion and respect for humanity,” which is code for forcing LGBT acceptance. Shred the Bible, sin is in. Your “tweens” – and younger -- need to hear the gospel of the gay movement.

Deadline.com reports Disney Channel is introducing its first gay character on a children’s show, Andi Mack, in one of those Very Special Episodes:

Deadline added that Andi Mack is Disney's "top series of the year among girls (median age is 10) and #1 in its time period among all children ages six-14."

The least surprising element of this story is the involvement of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), which almost always works hand-in-glove with any Hollywood production to promote homosexuality. “We hear Minsky and Disney Channel, to ensure the story arc is age-appropriate and respectful, consulted with child development experts and was screened to organizations including GLAAD, PFLAG, The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, and Common Sense Media.”

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https://nypost.com/2017/12/08/the-di...-for-our-kids/

As a mom of three young kids, I’m careful about what they’re exposed to on television, and I screen the shows they watch to confirm they reflect our family values of respect and courteousness. That’s why my kids are banned from watching the Disney Channel.

The Disney Channel and its spin-off, Disney XD, are no longer “safe spaces” for kids. The kid characters on Disney’s shows are often mouthy and disrespectful to parents and authority figures (who are usually scripted as muddle-headed and embarrassingly square). Even many of the strange animated characters make crass and nasty comments.

Shockingly, both my conservative and liberal parent friends tend to be angered by Disney’s programming. And in the Trump era, moms treasure these rare moments of bipartisan disgust.

Of course, some defend Disney, saying the company is only reflecting our culture and doing what all corporations do by responding to consumer demand. Yet maybe the company should reconsider caving in to the worst impulses of an immature demographic — Disney XD is designed for kids aged 6 to 14.

After all, Disney has another consumer to consider — the wearied parent battling modern culture to instill principles of kindness, politeness and respect of elders. This Sisyphean task is made more difficult when kids get a regular dose of vulgar speech, crude jokes and insolent behavior on a channel designed for kids.

If that isn’t enough, Disney has now decided to throw some sex and gender issues into the mix.

Small-screen shows like “Andi Mack” featured a tween character coming to terms with his own sexuality.

Disney is pushing boundaries even further by attempting to address the transgender issue.

On a recent episode of the Disney XD show “Star vs. the Forces of Evil,” a young boy dresses up as Princess Marco Turdina — get it? Turd-ina — in order to rescue a group of girls from the evil headmistress at St. Olga’s Reform School for Wayward Princesses. Sounds tame, right? Boy rescues girls, how traditional.

But when the boy is revealed to be — gasp! — a boy by the headmistress who reveals he has chest hair under his princess costume, the young girls rally around him and launch into the sort of social-justice lecture one might see playing out on the University of California, Berkeley campus.

The scene begins with the headmistress shouting, “Turdina isn’t a princess. She’s a boy!” To which the girls, responding to such a disgusting display of gender bigotry, offer a chorus of defense for Turdina, shouting down the headmistress with comments like:

“Why does it matter if he’s a boy? Nothing he said was wrong!” “He can be a princess if he wants to!” “Turdina is a state of mind!”

No doubt, Disney writers understood this scene would make parents uncomfortable, but what they didn’t understand is the nature of the discomfort.

Sure, some will be unhappy with the transgender-embracing message, but most will be more concerned that kids are being told it’s OK to shout down an adult.

Is that how we want children acting — shouting down authority figures? Oh, wait, they’re already doing that. Again, just look at our college campuses.

We hear a lot from the left about how corporations have a duty to make the world a better place for all mankind.

In response to activist pressure, most corporations give lavishly to environmental causes. Corporations are told they must diversify their workforce. As such, most major corporations, both old and new, have initiated a variety of badly managed “Corporate Diversity Programs” that have done nothing more than increase tension in the workforce.

Corporations do these things because the public demands it — and to avoid lawsuits.

When it comes to how parents feel and how most parents want to raise kids, Disney seems to think it has zero responsibility.

That’s not going to change until parents start pushing back — or, you know, start pushing the television’s “off” button when Disney comes on.

Julie Gunlock is a senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum.

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Andi Mack's Joshua Rush did a lot to prepare to play Disney Channel's first openly gay character
“I think this storyline is definitely going to help a lot of my peers,” he says. “I was the first person that one of my good friends came out to, and I think that if I had someone like Buffy on TV, I think I would’ve done a better job and had been a better friend in that situation. I’m glad that I can be a part of this.”

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Watch the first Disney Channel character to say "I'm gay"

Andi Mack aired a big milestone Friday when Joshua Rich's Cyrus Goodman uttered the words "I'm gay" when coming out to his best friend, who responded: “Yeah? Okay, cool.”

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Andi Mack's Joshua Rush comes out as bisexual after his character made history by saying "I'm gay"

Rush's character, Cyrus Goodman made history on Feb. 8, by saying "I'm gay" for the first time in Disney Channel history. Rush today revealed on Twitter that "i'm bi." He added: "And now that I've said that, I have a few things to rant about. There are more important things to talk about than me liking a whole bunch of genders, but I do want to share a few things with you guys...How ironic, isn't it, that me, playing that character, never had mustered up that courage? Instead of feeling the courage to tell you today that I am an out and proud bisexual man because of the character I played for four years, I feel that courage thinking of all of you, who felt emboldened by Cyrus to come out."