WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – Five Republican senators have asked the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board to help parents protect their kids from being groomed into gender ideology by children’s shows.
A May 4 letter from Senators Rogers Marshall (KS), Mike Braun (IN), Kevin Cramer (ND), Mike Lee (Utah), and Steve Daines (MT) asks for an updated system to allow parents to protect kids from “disturbing content” related to gender dysphoria. The senators asked Chairman Charles Rivkin for a response by May 18 and an in-person meeting to discuss their concerns. Rivkin is also the CEO of the Motion Picture Association.
The media industry council employs a ratings system for TV content so parents can make informed decisions about the age-appropriateness of a show or movie. Representatives include Disney, Hulu, NBC, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“In recent years, concerning topics of a sexual nature have become aggressively politicized and promoted in children’s programming, including irreversible and harmful experimental treatments for mental disorders like gender dysphoria,” the letter stated. “To this end, we strongly urge you to update the TV Parental Guidelines and ensure they are up-to-date on best practices that help inform parents on this disturbing content.”
The quintet of Republicans called out Disney for its sexualized content and its explicit commitment to promoting the LGBT agenda in children’s programming.
“Recently, a video emerged showing a prominent executive at children’s entertainment giant Disney saying she supports having ‘many, many, many LGBTQIA+ characters in our stories,'” the letter stated.
SCOOP: Disney corporate president Karey Burke says, “as the mother [of] one transgender child and one pansexual child,” she supports having “many, many, many LGBTQIA characters in our stories” and wants a minimum of 50 percent of characters to be LGBTQIA and racial minorities. pic.twitter.com/oFRUiuu9JG
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) March 29, 2022
“To the detriment of children, gender dysphoria has become sensationalized in the popular media and television with radical activists and entertainment companies. This radical and sexual sensation not only harms children, but also destabilizes and damages parental rights,” the letter stated.
It criticized Disney for its opposition to Florida’s anti-grooming law “that bans classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.”
“Sexual orientation and gender identity instruction often entails a discussion concerning an individual’s pattern of emotional, romantic, and sexual attraction,” the letter stated. “Parents all over the country have rightfully expressed outrage over its inclusion in the classroom.”
“A former creator of Disney children’s content recently published an article acknowledging that every children’s TV writer knows to be careful about ‘modeling behavior’ as children will often imitate what is projected through the TV scripts, especially preschoolers,” the letter stated. The article can be read here.
“Sexually-related content not only negatively influences and exploits its young audiences, but also harms child actors,” the senators wrote. “Time and again, child actors from major children’s TV channels, including Disney, have revealed trauma from being sexualized at an early age,” the senators wrote, referencing an allegation by Cole Sprouse, a former Disney child actor.
The Republican senators warned about the harms of “the promotion of irreversible experimental treatments that involve surgical and otherwise invasive cosmetic procedures that are detrimental and life-altering, and do not evidence medical necessity.”
“The motivations of hypersexualized entertainment producers striving to push this content on young audiences are suspect at best and predatory at worst,” the letter stated.