WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Mike Braun (R-IN), Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-KS), Mike Lee (R-UT), Steve Daines (R-MT), and Kevin Cramer (R-ND) signed a letter May 4 obliging the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board to create a T.V. rating warning about LGBTQIA+ content in children’s programming.
The letter, addressed to Mr. Charles Rivkin, Chairman of the Board, begins with thanking the board for “empowering parents through the provision of tools that enable them to identify television content that is not suitable for certain ages”. The letter then goes on to warn the board about the “concerning topics of sexual nature becoming more aggressively politicized and promoted in children’s programming”.
The Senators’ argument for a LGBTQIA content T.V. rating points back to a video that emerged showing an executive at Disney saying she supports having “many, many, many LBGTQIA+ characters in our stories”. The Senators explain in their letter that, “To the detriment of children, gender dysphoria has become sensationalized in the popular media and television with radical activists and entertainment companies.”
They then continue to argue, “This radical and sexual sensation not only harms children, but also destabilizes and damages parental rights. In light of parents raising legitimate concerns on sexual orientation and gender identity content on children’s TV shows, we expect the Board to fulfill its responsibility in updating the TV Parental Guidelines to reflect these concerns.”
The Senators are asking for a reply on their plan no later than Wednesday, May 18, 2022, and have requested an in-person briefing with the members of the Board.
The Indiana Democratic Party set the following statement in response to the letter:
“There should be a warning label put up every time Mike Braun goes on TV because his antics are more about extreme partisanship and debunked conspiracies than actually creating a better future for all Hoosiers. Mike Braun sure seems to care a lot about other peoples’ love lives — from telling LGBTQ Hoosiers how they should act to believing that interracial marriages should be voided. Democrats join with the majority of Hoosiers and Americans in telling Mike Braun: get a life!”
Drew Anderson, Spokesman for the Indiana Democratic Party