Snoop Dogg Criticism of Gay Couple Causes Ruckus

Snoop Dogg has inadvertently started a conversation about LGBTQ representation in children's movies. When appearing on the It's Giving podcast, the rapper talked about bringing his young grandson to the 2022 Disney/Pixar film Lightyear, which featured a lesbian couple raising a child.

• "Well, my grandson, in the middle of the movie, [was] like, 'Papa Snoop? How she have a baby with a woman? She a woman!'" he said, per Variety. He added: "I'm like, scared to go to the movies. Y'all throwing me in the middle of s--- that I don't have an answer for. … It threw me for a loop. I'm like, 'What part of the movie was this?' These are kids. We have to show that at this age? They're going to ask questions. I don't have the answer."

Snoop is now taking flak online, along the lines of:

• "For many, this would be an opportunity to educate a young mind on a different type of relationship model, but not for Snoop!" writes Emma Keates at AV Club.
• "You're telling me that as a 50+ year old man, you still don't know how to talk to a kid about same sex parents?" is one of the comments rounded up by the New York Post in the comments section of the podcast video.
• At LGBTQ Nation, Alex Bollinger sees an irony: "It might come as a surprise that Snoop Dogg has lived long enough to be offended by others in the media, especially a brief kiss in a children's movie. In the 1990s, his music was often cited by activists concerned about obscenity in the recording industry. His albums, filled with swear words and explicit sexual imagery, were some of the first to get parental advisory stickers."
• The aforementioned kiss was controversial when the movie was on the verge of coming out, and the filmmakers fought to keep it in, notes a separate Variety story.