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Rebecca Sugar Is Changing the Game for Queer Children's Storytelling
The animator, producer, and creator of Cartoon Network's beloved Steven Universe series is a part of this year's #PRIDE25!
The way the LGBTQ+ community has been portrayed in popular culture has come a long, long way in recent years. Although there's still a lot of work to be done, so many creative queer folks have been making awesome and inclusive movies, music, TV shows, and more that better represents our lives and our stories, so in honor of Pride Month, we're taking the time to honor 25 of these inspiring people! This is the 2019 #PRIDE25!
Rebecca Sugar is an animator, screenwriter, producer, songwriter, and creator of Cartoon Network's beloved LGBTQ cartoon series Steven Universe. As the network's first first non-male, nonbinary person to create their own series, Sugar's show has moved the bar higher and higher in terms of queer storytelling, and made history last year with TV's first same-gender proposal and wedding on a mainstream children's show.
Steven Universe and Sugar have been praised for showing same-gender couples, genderqueer characters, and even asexual and polyamorous characters. The children's show has surely started important conversations between kids, parents, and adults about sexuality, gender, and chosen family.
"We need to let children know that they belong in this world," Sugar told Entertainment Weekly. "You can’t wait to tell them that until after they grow up or the damage will be done. You have to tell them while they’re still children that they deserve love and that they deserve support and that people will be excited to hear their story. When you don’t show any children stories about LGBTQIA characters and then they grow up, they’re not going to tell their own stories because they’re gonna think that they’re inappropriate and they’re going to have a very good reason to think that because they’ve been told that through their entire childhood."
For Sugar, it was an outlet to explore her own sexuality and gender. She came out as bisexual in 2016 and nonbinary in 2018.
"I think the show has been a chance for me to become a little more comfortable with exploring my own relationship to gender, and, of all the characters, Ruby is my most direct vessel of a character," she explained. "Ruby and Sapphire have always been meant to represent me and my partner and so that always felt natural to me."
There's no denying that Sugar is changing the game for LGBTQ representation and hopefully, the next generation of queer kids and allies watching Steven Universe see themselves and can see a kinder and rosier future.
Watch a teaser for Steven Universe: The Movie below!
\u201cSteven Universe The Movie \ud83c\udf1f...\ud83c\udfb5\u00a0is a musical!!!\ud83c\udfb5\n\nFeaturing all NEW songs by @rebeccasugar in collaboration with @chancetherapper @EstelleDarlings @PattiLuPone @UzoAduba @SoGallant @aimeemann and more!\n\n#stevenuniversethemovie #stevenuniverse #cartoonnetwork\u201d— Cartoon Network (@Cartoon Network) 1560431465
And check out more of the 2019 #PRIDE25 honorees here!
Taylor Henderson is a PRIDE.com contributor. This proud Texas Bama studied Media Production/Studies and Sociology at The University of Texas at Austin, where he developed his passions for pop culture, writing, and videography. He's absolutely obsessed with Beyoncé, mangoes, and cheesy YA novels that allow him to vicariously experience the teen years he spent in the closet. He's also writing one!
Taylor Henderson is a PRIDE.com contributor. This proud Texas Bama studied Media Production/Studies and Sociology at The University of Texas at Austin, where he developed his passions for pop culture, writing, and videography. He's absolutely obsessed with Beyoncé, mangoes, and cheesy YA novels that allow him to vicariously experience the teen years he spent in the closet. He's also writing one!
