Utah Sen. Mike Lee demands parental warning for TV shows with LGBTQ characters and themes

Utah Sen. Mike Lee was one of five senators to sign on to a letter to the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board demanding they provide a separate rating for television shows that will show “disturbing content,” which they define as including themes or characters of “sexual orientation and gender identity.”

The goal of the rating is to allow parents to block their children from viewing any material that involvedssexual orientation or gender identity.

“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 states. “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.”

“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. 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.

“Sexually-related content not only negatively influences and exploits its young audiences, but also harms child actors,” the letter continues. “Time and again, child actors from major children’s TV channels, including Disney, have revealed trauma from being sexualized at an early age.”

“The motivations of hypersexualized entertainment producers striving to push this content on young audiences are suspect at best and predatory at worst,” the letter states.

SEN.DEREK KITCHEN RESPONDS

State Senator Derek Kitchen released a statement in response to Lee’s attempt to label LGBTQ+ representation as “disturbing content:”

“As a gay man, as the only openly LGBTQ+ elected official in the Utah Legislature, and as a human being, I’m here to express to Senator Lee that our community is fed up with divisive and dangerous rhetoric. The LGBTQ+ community is not a political punching bag—we are people, and we are sick and tired of these offensive antics. Mike Lee wants to put a warning on love. He wants to put a warning on people freely expressing themselves. We will continue to be full human beings with rights, feelings, and dignity. You cannot edit out our existence. To label a gay character on a television show ‘disturbing content’ is divisive, cruel, and unacceptable.

“His actions have life-and-death consequences for our queer community. Year after year, Utah has one of the highest rates of suicide in the nation and is the leading cause of death for young Utahns aged 10 to 24. A recent survey found that queer youth seriously contemplate suicide at almost three times the rate of heterosexual youth. In Utah, nearly 12% of high school students do not identify as heterosexual. LGBTQ+ people are at an increased risk of death by suicide not due to their gender identity nor sexual orientation in and of itself, but due to low levels of acceptance and belonging in the broader community that Senator Lee emboldens. Queer kids should not be used as pawns in the Senator’s game.

“Being gay has been a reality since the beginning of time, but representation—in media and in countless other spaces—is severely insufficient. What Senator Lee is proposing here is erasure of the LGBTQ+ community. I’m here to say loud and clear: We belong, and you will not erase us. Representation matters. It matters to the homeless youth whose parents kicked them out of their homes simply because they are gay. It matters to the queer kids who have no support system other than each other. And it matters to all the kids who are too afraid to come out because of politicians like Senator Lee.

“As the only open LGBTQ+ member of the Utah Legislature, does Senator Mike Lee want to put a warning label on my Senate floor debates? Does the Senator want to put a warning label in front of my restaurant or my campaign office? As lawmakers, we have a responsibility to sincerely address actual problems that everyday people face, including affordable housing, wages, and climate change. Culture war posturing is unhelpful, divisive, and an abuse of power. Utahns deserve far better,” Kitchen concluded.

Senators Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, Mike Braun, R-Ind., Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., and Steve Daines, R-Mont. also signed on to the letter.

When asked by The Kansas City Star to provide specific examples of the sexually oriented content, Marshall, the lead author of the letter, named Netflix’s “She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.”

The letter was dated May 4, 2022 and requested a response by May 18. As of press time, no response was given.