Controversy with “Love God”

Gravity Falls 32 comments

 

Art By Sabrina Cotugno

Art By Sabrina Cotugno

Recently Gravity Falls’s “Love God” has been the talk of several tumblr and reddit conversations. Particularly after the recent discovery of the removed references to the LGBTQ community from story boards to final episode.

Sabrina Cotugno posted on her personal tumblr the story board to a sequence she had worked on. Upon review, many fans took notice to the changes made in the final animation put on air. Such as tumblr user sketcheclectic.

  • The changes to note are that cupid’s pendant was changed from a symbol commonly used in the LGBTQ community to one with two symbols representing male an female.
  • But the most notable change was originally the old woman was going to be matched with another old woman, but instead changed to an old man instead.

After the break you can see screen shot comparisons from story board to final animation. ->

Many think that it would have been great had the references been kept, while others believe it’s too soon to allow those references in a children’s show. What do you think? Comment below.

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  • S-3

    Cowards – it’s never too soon. We need to strike on promoting tolerance like this of LGBTQ while the iron is fucking hot…

    • Anon

      While I don’t think we need a show to be so so blunt about LGBQ, I think this was subtle enough and would have been good.
      I do like that they made it an inter-racial couple as a substitute.

      • S-3

        That last sentence on yours, anon… That’s the only thing I can agree on NOT pissing me off about this. At least GF’s writers know “Racism Bad, Interrracial Tolerance GOOD”.

        Still a missed opportunity IN THE END. No pulling myself out of that. Sorry.

        • Gina

          and the last part of your statement is exactly why I don’t want you or anyone like you trying to “teach” my kids anything.

          • anon

            sadly for you, there will be no stopping it. the lgbt+ communtiy is slowly getting more recognition and acceptance, especially with same sex marriage being legal in the us. sooner or later (they will be “taught”. no matter what you try to do to “protect them” they’re will be lgbt+ people around them. hell, it could be one of their peers, even one of their closest friends. kids these days seem to be more accepting of these “touchy” subjects meaning in the future it will be “normal” to be gay, trans, bi, etc.

            you’re child wont be “corrupted” by the “gay lifestyle” eiter your born that way or your not. for all you know you’re child was born that way! and if they are they weren’t “corrupted”. there no telling how they will grow up.

            your kids are bound to see a gay couple sooner or later

          • Pascal Fernandes

            You will propaly be like if your childe turnes out Gay i will send him out of the hous led him fed for himself . Fuck this ok! becaus this would be serios shit lady

      • Gina

        inter-racial is fine, but gay is not, that is what I believe and I don’t want anyone else telling my kids other wise, it’s not hate, I don’t care what you do with your life, you will be judged by God but you will not corrupt my childs mind with your lifestyle. ( maybe not you but you know what I mean)

        • TuxedoCartman

          A) “…it’s not hate,…”
          B) “…you will be judged by God but you will not corrupt my childs mind with your lifestyle.”

          Kindly pick one, because you can’t have both. You don’t get to talk about LGBT acceptance as “corrupting minds,” all while stating, “But I don’t hate them!”

        • Alex

          praying that you kids aren’t gay for their sake. I have many queer friends with homophobic parents, and It sucks at the very least, gets you disowned, kicked out of the house, and beat up at the most. just for being who they are. lucky me with reasonable parents who are accepting of me. also lucky i have a lesbian aunt (and her bisexual wife :D) who made me not feel weird about my first crush and realizing i was gay

    • lolwut

      Childrens’ cartoons are not the place to promote issues like this.

  • GirlaPH

    At first, I thought it was going to about people complaining about the word “God” on the Disney show, but I guess this is different. Even though I’ve seen bits of pieces of the show, I’m really disappointed that this was censored. I know Disney did showed a lesbian couple in one sitcom show, but censoring the show that contains a LGBTQ? I really don’t understand why Disney had to change something like a symbol into a… sex symbol? I mean, I don’t get it Disney? If that one sitcom showed a lesbian couple, why not show some lesbian couple on the cartoon as well? Just saying.

    • Bingk

      That is odd. It’s possible, Disney see’s cartoons as having a younger target audience then the live-action sitcoms. It’s easier to offend parents of younger children then it is parents of young teens? I don’t agree with the removal however.

      • GirlaPH

        Well, there are some kids that were adopted by same-sex parents. And I think it’s unfair to the kids who watched cartoons don’t see the same-sex couples on cartoons. I know Cartoon Network showed same-sex couples on one of their shows.

  • TuxedoCartman

    It would have been an incredibly brave and awesome act if they had stuck with the original direction (so much so it would have convinced me to give the show a chance). But given America’s current social climate, I can’t fault them for taking the “safe” path. So long as they don’t actually engage in any anti-LGBQT scenes, I can’t hate them for the decision; it means something that the creators wanted to do the scene in the first place.

    • ToothlessDragon

      It’s entirely possible that the decision to play it “safe” was a fault of disney. While Disney slowly opens it’s doors to the LGBTQ, they might be a little gun shy overall. Being as big a company as they are, they like to stay neutral on controversial matters. Only picking a side when they think that side is more favored and will make them more money or bring more ‘positive’ attention.

  • Benschachar

    I don’t see a reason to shoehorn LGBTWTFBBQ! issues into a young children’s show.

    • really now

      This. We don’t need to be pushing these touchy social issues in a childrens’ cartoon.

      • Anon

        They were try to make this STOP being a “touchy” issue. (Which it should not be, but unfortunately is)

        • Gina

          I don’t want anyone teaching my kids that something I don’t agree with biblically is ok. for crying out loud, just leave the kids alone!

          • anon #2

            hate to break it to you, but sooner or later they will learn about it. in inevitable. also, not everyone has the same religious views as you.

          • JustSomeDude

            Yeah it should only feature natural, Christian approved things like gnomes, Time Babies, and demon Illuminati Triangles…

          • Pascal Fernandes

            Your stupid ok! This would have been great ok -_- I may be straight and be like cute cuople and such but i would found at cute the same way if ther would have gone the other way around asweal considering that this season of Gravity falls is realy dark

          • Cangel Tibon

            Biblically, yeah right I bet you don’t even follow most of the bluntly stated (some even written in stone) rules but -are against- gays. So please in enjoy your ham sandwich, and shellfish on your way to getting a haircut because in the end your ending up in the same place as the gays.

          • AmachiShouta

            Gravity Falls isn’t a show specifically for Christians, it’s a show for everybody. You should teach your children that there are people with different views and religions than you instead of forcing non-christian shows to comply to Christian rules. If having characters eating pork (because some religions are against it) isn’t considered pushing religious views into kid’s shows, then having LGBT characters shouldn’t be either, because almost everyone against it is against it for religious reasons.

    • Luna Cho

      its funny how people are all “FREE SPEECH!” until gay people existing comes up lol, then its all “no no no, we need to censor creators. up with censorship! cover up the existence of unnamed lesbian character subtly in the background of random tv shows! think of the children!!” nah, get over yourself you overly sensitive special snowfake. lesbian side characters arent a problem, you are.

  • Reba

    I think its quite a shame that they decided to cut the LGBQT scenes, but I definitely understand why they did it. I imagine that if Disney had actually allowed the original scenes to be in the final product, it would spark a huge controversy and Gravity Falls would probably be censored, and maybe even canceled. It saddens me, but we probably won’t see any LGBQT content in Gravity Falls, or any other Disney show for quite some time.

  • chikennuggerless

    i mean it would have been great for the LGBQT community,but the people who are in charge of judging if a series is appropriate for children might not agree.They might order to stop airing gravity falls.Like they did with the Hannah Montana show.I think it is good to make these changes so gravity falls can keep airing.

  • Gina

    leave the cartoons alone! for crying out loud, why do they have to ruin everything??

  • Gregory Tiller

    I’m glad they changed it to a man and woman.

  • Makoto Itoshi

    This is why Alex should have aired this show on Cartoon Network instead.

  • Anonymous

    See, the whole point of them changing things up was purely because of what is happening here. Not everyone agrees with a sensitive topic like this, and so to avoid problems with the viewers, they make things more subtle. There are groups of people who would like to see LGBT+ representation in children shows because they believe it’s okay, and there’s others who would not like to see it because they believe it isn’t. Children, to begin with, shouldn’t be targets of anyone’s political or religious views, so things touching those topics shouldn’t be in kid’s shows to begin with anyways. People don’t watch cartoons to be satisfied in politics, they watch the news for that. So the two shouldn’t mix honestly.