grow up

Of course conservatives are losing it over Disney’s Baymax, healthcare robot and queer ally

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Photo Credit: Disney+

Move over Lightyear, there’s a new Disney property in the conservative crosshairs this week.

The family-friendly Disney+ series, Baymax!—a spin-off of the hit animated action-adventure movie, Big Hero 6—dropped recently, and its inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters has certain viewers freaking out.

That’s right, the newest threat to our American ideals and values? It’s this guy.

via GIPHY

Set after the large-scale super-heroics of the film, Baymax! follows the titular bot—essentially an inflatable robo-nurse—as he provides help and healthcare to the citizens of San Fransokyo (a fantasy city that combines San Francisco and Tokyo, naturally). It’s a decidedly smaller-scale endeavor, each episode a brief 10-minute vignette where Baymax helps out different friends and comic hijinks ensue. With its teachable lessons and sweet nature, Baymax! is essentially a modern-day Captain Planet.

Harmless enough. Except some people can’t bare the thought of young viewers seeing humanity—in all its diversity—the way it actually is.

Case in point, apparent “writer, filmmaker, activist” Christopher Rufo, who takes issue with a brief moment in Baymax!‘s third episode, in which Baymax helps out a middle school student named Sofia when she has her first period:

First of all, chill bro. It’s 2022—you didn’t “obtain leaked video,” you just saw a clip of the series the day before it hit Disney+. Big whoop! Have you been on Twitter before? Full movies leak on there weeks before they hit theaters.

We digress. Rufo cites this as another example of Disney’s “not-at-all-secret gay agenda,” worrying what will happen to kids when they see transgender characters talking about period protection. As he puts it, the company is attempting to “re-engineer the discourse around kids and sexuality.” Really, Rufo? You think children are in danger just by being exposed to the very real truth that trans people exist? And, god forbid someone actually takes the time to educate them on the realities of periods and how their bodies work.

Related: Gay guys list their cartoon crushes, from Aladdin to Archer

Plus there’s the fact that the character Rufo singles out—a trans-masc person sporting a shirt with the colors of the Trans Pride flag—is not even commented upon within the scene. they’re just existing! And for some reason that’s too much? It’s all part of the horrifying conservative push to legitimize the LGBTQ community, paint them as “groomers,” and quite literally erase queer people from the narrative.

Even Baymax, a blow-up ‘bot who thinks cats are “hairy babies,” has more common sense than these people.

On Twitter, a number of viewers have lauded the series for its inclusiveness and willingness to address important issues about physical and mental health in a manner fit for the full family, not to mention Baymax!‘s embrace of queer characters. As one user pointed out, Baymax even helps two adorable gay characters set up a date (sort of):

Let’s wrap this up on another high note and take a look at some of the folks dunking on Rufo for his absolutely unfounded outrage:

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