The Disney Channel made history last week when a young male character on its tween series, “Andi Mack,” acknowledged his feelings for another boy in the show’s second season premiere.
While the Disney Channel had previously acknowledged same-sex relationships on other shows, it was the first time that the family-friendly network featured a coming out story arc in a series. The character, Cyrus Goodman, will reportedly grow to embrace himself as a gay tween in future episodes of the show.
The “Andi Mack” news, of course, has ruffled conservative feathers. A media executive in Kenya has even gone a step further by declaring a complete ban on the series moving forward.
Dr. Ezekiel Mutua, who is the CEO of the Kenya Film Classification Board, announced the ban in a series of fiery tweets Monday. Any attempts to air “Andi Mack” in Kenya, he wrote, “will be met with the full force of the law.”
He included a photo of a press release issued by South African entertainment company MultiChoice announcing the ban.
He continued:
He went even further in a Tuesday Facebook post. “When it comes to protecting children from exposure to bad content,” he wrote, “we are resolute and unapologetic.”
The news is not particularly surprising given the country’s stance on the LGBTQ community at large. Like many African nations, Kenya outlaws homosexuality, and those who are found to be involved in homosexual acts face jail time.
The Kenyan ban on “Andi Mack” could have greater implications for the show’s viewership in Africa at large, as many channel distributors have one broadcast feed for the entire continent, Variety reports.
In 2015, the TLC docudrama “I Am Jazz,” starring transgender teen Jazz Jennings, was yanked off local stations. Caitlyn Jenner’s series, “I Am Cait,” was similarly pulled from the E! Entertainment channel in Africa last year.
HuffPost has reached out to the Disney Channel for comment and will update this story accordingly.
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