Gay Men Dating in Cartoons Banned in Kenya: Is India Standing on the same Pedestal?

• Kenya bans some cartoon shows airing on Nickelodeon as they were flagged to be disturbing content glorifying homosexual behavior
• The Loud House (only one episode of two gay men dating each other), The Legend of Korra and Hey Arnold were some of the banned shows
• Exekiel Mutua said, "Adults can choose to become homosexuals and exercise their rights on sexual orientation and relationships, but not so with children"

June 22, 2017:

After millenniums of being into existence, we still have our reservations from homosexuality. Even though its explanation in the ancient times, we still refrain from conversations with gay men dating others. A person's sexuality is a matter of his own choice and the sole owner of this field is the person itself but the world can't digest the fact of exposing people towards other people. What we need to remember is denying their existence means crippling your thoughts!

The exposure of homosexuality to children in our society through cartoons plays a very big role because it shapes the thinking of the child but on the other hand, the world is just ignoring the fact and hiding it so that it doesn't create a single impact on the child. This brings out the need to have more discussions on exposing homosexuality to children and how it should shape the modern world.

One case that recently came into light was in Kenya where gay anime shows which aired on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network were banned from the country because it was flagged as disturbing content and 'glorifying homosexual behavior' among children.

Some of the names of those programs were-

• The Loud House –The show is about the life of a child living with 11 other family members and his house is a mess.
• The Legend of Korra –It is a sci-fi show where all the cartoons are known to bend matter.
• Hey Arnold – The show centers on a child name Arnold who falls in adventurous troubles with his friends.

The Chief executive officer of the regulatory board, Exekiel Mutua said that "Adults can choose to become homosexuals and exercise their rights on sexual orientation and relationships, but not so with children".

In India, there is hardly any chance that the cartoons can be related to homosexuality as there is a possibility it may be considered not normal or even a crime. The most relatable example in the Indian concept is if we talk about the movie 'Bombay Talkies'. The movie has four short movies and two of them is "Ajeeb Dastan Hain Ye" and "Sheila ki Jawani" and in that movie.

ALSO READ: Amnesty Condemns Caning of Gay Men in Indonesia by Sharia or Islamic law in Indonesia

In "Sheila ki Jawani", the protagonist aspires to become a dancer and dances to the tunes of the Bollywood song Sheila ki Jawani but his father wishes him to have a more manly aim such as to be a footballer. This small example can exactly tell you about the scenario in India. How profession is linked to the gender and not to one's individual choices. In this country, people are more concerned about a boy child not to have 'Girly' Dreams then how can one expect the cartoons to be glorifying homosexuality.

The idea of not including homosexual content in cartoons is because it is believed that it might induce homosexual behavior in children. Though ironically, if cartoons start having these hints of homosexuality for children to view at a young age, they might react normally when they witness an actual homosexual relation. There is a possibility that we will not push or reject anyone to a corner for the choices they will make. Acceptance might rule. THINK!

– by Sumit Balodi of NewsGram. Twitter: @sumit_balodi