On this day in 2019 animated series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic included for the first time a same-sex couple.
The episode The Last Crusade, written by Nicole Dubuc, screened in the USA, but it was several years before it had an Australian broadcast.
In the story one of the characters Scootaloo and her friends Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, known collectively as the Cutie Mark Crusaders, meet with Scootaloo’s caretakers Aunt Holiday and Auntie Lofty. Holiday and Lofty are a same sex couple.
The emergence of lesbian animated horses on television upset conservative commentators across Australia.
Lyle Shelton, who at the time was the spokesperson for the now defunct Cory Bernardi’s Australian Conservatives, said the inclusion of a same sex couple in My Little Pony was proof that allowing same-sex marriage would lead to children being ‘indoctrinated’.
“It’s a brave new world folks and we need to push back while we still can. Sitting outside politics is no longer an option for conservatives.” Shelton posted to social media.
Kirralie Smith, the head of anti-transgender organisation Binary, posted an image of Aunt Lofty and Aunt Holiday saying “They are coming for your kids…”
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic later introduced more LGBTIQA+ characters including Sweetie Drops, who rans a candy story, but was also a secret agent.
