Nickelodeon celebrates Pride Month with LGBTQ+ characters Korra and SpongeBob. This year, the annual month-long celebration of LGBTQ+ lives and voices has come at one of the most challenging times in global human history.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unthinkable devastation to nations around the world and kept populations under lockdown or quarantine for months at a time. Just as some societies began to ease their lockdown restrictions in hopes of getting back to some semblance of normal, the brutal killing of George Floyd at the hands of the Minnesota police occurred, resulting in global protests and riots that continue as of this writing. Indeed, the world is in a very tumultuous and often heartbreaking state of transition right now. While many positive things are coming out of these hectic and divisive times, one of the most uplifting celebrations of the summer, Pride, has been forced to cancel its public festivities. As if all this wasn’t too much for most to take, author J.K. Rowling has been at the center of a substantial controversy this past week, after she made anti-trans statements via her Twitter account.
With everything that’s currently taking place, Nickelodeon has taken the opportunity to celebrate Pride Month through some of its most popular characters. Three new images have arrived courtesy of the network’s Twitter account. The pictures highlight Spongebob SquarePants, Avatar Korra from The Legend of Korra series, and Swoz Schwartz (Michael D. Cohen) from Nickelodeon’s Henry Danger series. All three images are festooned with heaps of rainbow coloring, and the characters themselves are also dressed in rainbow-colored attire.
It is perhaps the perfect time for Nickelodeon to inject some joy into people’s lives, and these images are sure to bring a smile to the faces of many. Avatar Korra has long been openly bi-sexual, while Cohen came out as transgender last year, and his Swoz Schwartz character was also recently confirmed to be transgender. For quite some time now, rumors have persisted, and debate has ensued over Spongebob’s sexual orientation. This seems silly, considering that he’s a sponge, but none the less, the character’s creator, Stephen Hillenburg, went on record in 2005 as saying that Spongebob is, in fact, asexual. This doesn’t stop the beloved character from being an LGBTQ+ ally, however, nor did it stop some fans from continuing to debate his orientation.
Though it’s a small marker of Pride Month, Nickelodeon’s Tweet comes at a crucial time. It is undoubtedly a comfort for so many to see members of the LGBTQ+ community and its allies being represented, especially with everything that has taken place as a result of J.K. Rowling’s comments. When a marginalized community is unable to publicly gather, the internet becomes the next best meeting ground and the perfect place for animated (and real-life) characters to send their love and support to people of all orientations, all around the world.
Source: Twitter