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.
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 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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Former New York Yankees left-hander Fritz Peterson died at the age of 82. He is probably best known exchanging wives with teammate Mike Kekich in the 1970s.
