‘Blue’s Clues’ releases LGBTQ animated video for Pride Month with drag queen Nina West
To kick-off LGBTQ Pride Month in June, beloved Nickelodeon children’s show Blue's Clues celebrates diversity and inclusivity through a colorful sing-along video.
The YouTube video features an animated version of much-loved RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant Nina West singing Families Go Marching (to the tune of the children’s song Ants Go Marching) as different animal families representing the wide spectrum of the LGBTQ rainbow make their way to the “Pride Parade” in ornate floats.
Represented in the parade are families with two mothers raising a child, and a child brought up by two fathers; and transgender and non-binary children. With this, the song sends a message that all families are made differently, like how other people even choose their own family.
“Ace, bi and pan grown-ups you see, can love each other so proudly, and they all go marching in the big parade!” sang Nina West, who was referring to asexual, bisexual and pansexual members of the LGBTQ community.
West’s character is also holding a microphone with the “black power fist,” a symbol tied to the Black Lives Matter movement but has long been a symbol of revolutionary spirit.
Also mentioned in the song are the allies of the queer community who can “love their queer friends so proudly.”
At the latter part of the video was a message that has been trumpeted by the LGBTQ community and allies—“love is love” and everyone should proudly love one another. Nina West joyfully ends the song with “Happy Pride Month!”
Nina West, a beloved contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 11, posted on Instagram a video clip with the caption, “Is there a better way to kick off Pride Month than with my pal, Blue?! No way! Singing and dancing in the streets celebrating Pride is so much fun especially with all of our new friends!”
It is not the first time that the show has given a nod to the LGBTQ community. In February, Blue's Clues introduced an ABC song that says, “P is full of Pride” with the letter P in rainbow colors of the LGBT pride flag. The letter P was surrounded by other flags of the LGBTQ community like for transgender, pansexual, gender-fluid, etc.
Blue's Clues, a beloved Nickelodeon show that aired from 1996 to 2006, had a reboot in 2019.
Though the theme of the show remains the same—a blue-spotted dog named Blue leaves a trail of clues for the viewers to figure out her plans for the day—the reboot came with a new presenter, Filipino-American Joshua dela Cruz, the first Asian American host of the show. According to Forbes, the move was seen as a breakthrough for diversity in children’s television.
Sing along to The Blue's Clues Pride Parade below:
Banner screenshot from Blue's Clues & You YouTube channel and thumbnail image from Nina West’s Instagram