Culture

Kenya has banned Disney Channel show Andi Mack because it has a gay character

  • Nov 02 2017
  • Written by Josh Jackman
(YouTube/disneychannel)

(YouTube/disneychannel)

Kenya has banned a Disney Channel show for featuring a gay character.

In the season two premiere of Andi Mack, 13-year-old Cyrus – one of Andi’s best friends – begins to realise he has feelings for fellow teen Jonah.

On Monday, during the episode, Cyrus came out to one of his best friends, Buffy, and it was an emotional masterpiece, with his friend telling him with a smile: “You’re no different.”

(Disney Channel)

News of this storyline predictably offended One Million Moms, leading the anti-LGBT campaign group to launch a boycott of the Disney Channel.

And now the outrage has spread to Kenya, where the country’s Film Classification Board has banned the programme.

(Disney Channel)

Ezekiel Mutua, CEO of the board, tweeted the news with the message: “Children must be given correct information that family is a union between people of opposite gender”.

The truth, of course, is that children of same-sex parents do just as well as kids of opposite-sex parents.

The biggest threat to same-sex parents’ kids is – logically enough – discrimination.

On Facebook, Mutua went further.

He wrote: “Gay Content Will Not Air in Kenya. . .PERIOD!

“When it comes to protecting children from exposure to bad content we are resolute and unapologetic.

(Facebook/ezekiel mutua)

Ezekiel Mutua (Facebook/ezekiel mutua)

“The institution of family is sancrosanct [sic].

“It’s the basic unit of society and it’s derived from a union between a man and a woman. Any other doctrine, teaching or information is a heresy and a travesty!”

Multichoice, which distributes Disney programmes, confirmed that Andi Mack was not scheduled to air in Kenya anyway.

BEVERLY HILLS, CA - MARCH 04: Actors Lauren Tom, Emily Skinner, Asher Angel, Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Sofia Wylie, Joshua Rush and Lilan Bowden attend a screening of Disney Channel's "Tangled Before Ever After" at The Paley Center for Media on March 4, 2017 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

(Getty)

The decision follows a host of countries banning Beauty and the Beast or editing out a scene of its gay character, Le Fou, dancing with a man, earlier this year.

It’s a shame that Disney fans in Kenya won’t be able to see Cyrus’s journey because fans in the US loved his coming out scene.

Like, really loved it.

(Twitter/demonwon)

(Twitter/andimack13)

(Twitter/andimack13)

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