My Little Pony has had a soft spot in all our hearts since we first fell in love with the show as '80s kids. And since 2010, the beloved cartoon has been once again streaming into living rooms and capturing a whole new generation of fans, thanks to the reboot, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Sadly, this year marks the final season of the nostalgic kid's show, but according to ComicBeat, it seems to be going out with a bang — and some pretty groundbreaking storylines. Case in point: This Saturday, the show will air an episode featuring a same-sex couple, which comes at a pretty noteworthy time considering June is LGBTQ Pride Month.
The Last Crusade, which already aired overseas, reportedly introduces pegasus pony Scootaloo's guardians: Aunt Holiday and Auntie Lofty.
The episode attempts to clarify a long-standing plot hole, according to ComicBeat, because Scootaloo's parents have been curiously absent from the series. And although some viewers might mistakenly assume that Aunt Holiday and Auntie Lofty are merely two aunts who've teamed up to care for their niece, creators have been clear: They're a couple.
The characters actually made their first debut in 2017, in the book Ponyville Mysteries: Riddle of the Rusty Horseshoe.
This is the first time they've been introduced on screen in the animated series.
At the time of the book's publication, fans weren't initially clear whether or not Holiday and Lofty were together — until the show's writer/producer Michael Vogel took to Twitter and basically confirmed it.
"What a cute couple!" Vogel wrote in his October 2017 tweet.
What a cute couple indeed.
Even though the nature of their relationship may not be overt, make no mistake: The introduction of Aunt Holiday and Auntie Lofty is pretty major.
And yet, they're not the first LGBTQ+ couple to be introduced into a kids' series.
In 2017, Disney Junior's Doc McStuffins introduced two interracial lesbian moms in one episode — something that was just groundbreaking for others but personal for series creator Chris Nee, who is an openly gay mom herself.
And just this past May, an episode of Arthur caught major praise for putting a gay couple at the center of its storyline, too.
In it, Arthur's teacher, Mr. Ratburn, doesn't just come out as gay, but the kids are all invited to his wedding — where they watch (presumably for the first time) a same-sex couple getting married. The episode is still drawing praise for the way in which it incorporates positive LGBTQ+ characters into the narrative in a way that's inclusive and celebratory.
But of course, it didn't come without some backlash from critics who felt the storyline had no place in kids' programming. So it's perhaps no surprise then that the same is happening now as the news of My Little Pony spreads.
On Twitter, conversation surrounding the episode is already brewing.
"We said indoctrinating your children & your grandchildren would be a consequence of [gay] 'marriage'," tweeted one user. "It’s a brave new world folks & we need to push back while we still can."
"I am yet to see *how* this damages kids," another user tweeted back. "That evidence is always what is missing from these arguments. I am serious when I ask for this to be presented. So far — silence."
She's right -- based on everything we know so far, there isn't any evidence to suggest being raised in a same-sex household is damaging.
According to Think Progress, the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study — the longest running study of its kind so far — indicates kids are doing all right. In fact, they're more than all right.
Researchers who've been following a contingent of lesbian families since the late '80s and early '90s have found "no significant differences with respect to 'adaptive functioning (family, friends, spouse or partner relationships, and educational or job performance), behavioral or emotional problems, scores on mental health diagnostic scales, or the percentage of participants with a score in the borderline or clinical range,'" Think Progress reports.
The fact is, families look all sorts of different these days -- and even if they don't look like yours, they deserve representation.
According to the Williams Institute, there are 114,000 same-sex parent households across America right now, and when their kids turn on the TV or head to the movies, they should be able to see families that look in some way like theirs.
Representation matters, even in its smallest shades. Bravo to My Little Pony for reminding us all of that fact this week.
