Elon Musk and Libs of TikTok are having a meltdown over a trans character in an animated Netflix show from three years ago.
This week, a clip from Hamish Steele’s Dead End: Paranormal Park—which aired two seasons in 2022—was resurfaced by Libs of TikTok in which the character Barney comes out as trans.
It’s a cute and innocuous coming-out scene made for younger viewers. But now it’s being used as fuel by right-wing actors to boycott Netflix and tank its stock price.
The Libs of TikTok post called out the clip for “pushing pro-transgender” on young viewers. This got picked up by Musk, who went on a full campaign to get users to boycott the streamer. According to The Guardian, Musk posted or reposted calls for users to cancel their Netflix subscriptions more than 26 times in just three days. One post of his targeting Netflix and the show racked up almost a million likes.
In response, Barney’s voice actor Zach Barack took to X to highlight the show’s positive trans representation, writing: “you can fear monger all you want, but kids & parents have told me it saved their lives!!”
Followers of Musk and Libs of TikTok are now going after any show on Netflix with LGBTQ2S+ themes or characters to justify their boycott—even those made for adults.
Just like school library book bans and other faux outrage, these campaigns targeting trans representation aren’t about “protecting” kids but censoring queer and trans stories. And campaigns like this will make it harder for shows like Dead End to get made.
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