Despite how overwhelmingly unpopular political messages are in children’s programming, “Rubble & Crew” a spinoff of the popular show “Paw Patrol” is set to feature a nonbinary character for the purpose of introducing LGBTQ ideology to young children.
According to Forbes, the nonbinary character named River is described as a “skateboarder who loves photography, [and] is introduced in the episode ‘The Crew Builds an Observatory,’ in which the central group of construction worker dogs build an observatory so River can take pictures of stars.”
River is reportedly not directly identified as nonbinary, however, the implication is evident. The writers even acknowledged that the color of the character’s socks — pink, white, and blue, resembling the transgender pride flag — was indeed intentional. Lindz Amer, the writer of the show, posted to Instagram, “Swipe to peep River’s [transgender flag emoji] kicks!”
Amer, a never-before-heard of LGBTQ activist and founder of Queer Kid Stuff, which has been “spreading queer joy since 2016!” according to the website. Amer’s YouTube channel, also titled “Queer Kid Stuff” discusses everything under the vast umbrella of LGBTQ, she also spends time reading books to children watching the channel such as, “When Aiden Became a Brother,” “Payden’s Pronoun Party,” and “What’s An Abortion, Anyway?”
“I wanted to write a nonbinary character that was aspirational and incredibly cool, someone for the pups (and kids at home) to look up to,” Amer said. “They brought me on to consult on the first nonbinary character— meet River!!—for the PP universe and write their episode, talk about a bucket list item.”
Amer also wrote a book in May 2023 titled “Rainbow Parenting: Your Guide to Raising Queer Kids and Their Allies.”
“Together,” the book states, “we’ll learn how children develop their identities and why this work must start in infancy. We’ll learn about our own unconscious biases and how to reshape our worldview to center perspectives that are not solely straight, white, cisgender, able-bodied, male, and Christian.”
Amer’s tells parents in her book, “Maybe infancy and toddlerhood seem a little early to introduce ideas around consent and body kindness, but it will … lay the groundwork for later conversations around our bodies … Then we’ll head to school for pre-K, where we’ll dive headfirst into a basic understanding of gender, sexuality, even intersectionality and activism.”
Robby Starbuck commented on the controversy, posting his thoughts on X, “Turn off mainstream shows for good, don’t let your kids surf the internet without supervision and share this video to wake up more parents.” To which several of his followers agreed.
