The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) announced the latest instalment in its ongoing collaboration with Cartoon Network. On Monday, December 14, Cartoon Network released a comic strip highlighting the power and importance of respecting gender identity through the use of gender pronouns.
The comic was designed by members of the NBJC Youth and Young Adult Action Council (YYAAC) with artist Steven Lowe (@steeeeevn), a team of talented creators from Cartoon Network Studios, and leadership from NBJC’s director of education programs and research, Dr. Kia Darling-Hammond. This collaboration grew out of Cartoon Network’s commitment to meaningfully engage with organizations serving the LGBTQ+/SGL community and is a part of the network’s continued support for NBJC.
On December 1, Gallery Nucleus launched an online art show benefiting NBJC that features art centred around community. Created by Cartoon Network Studios and Warner Bros. Animation artists, the artwork can be purchased through December 31.
Roughly 150,000 teenagers identify as transgender in the United States, and an as-yet-uncounted number of children as young as three years old are transgender or gender nonconforming, as well. Each year the number of self-identifying transgender people grows, suggesting that the more accepting society becomes, the easier it is for people to be their whole selves unapologetically. In light of this trend, this new comic strip is timely and important in its ability to increase awareness about pronouns and how to use them.
“At the heart of our work at NBJC is affirmation of the dignity and beauty of our Black transgender, gender nonconforming, nonbinary and other gender-expansive siblings,” said Darling-Hammond, NBJC’s director of education programs & research. “This comic strip advances our goals by showing what it looks like to treat people with respect, while finding a sense of common humanity. Our hope is that this strip’s audience, of all ages and backgrounds, will feel inspired to begin volunteering their own gender pronouns, respect those of others, and normalize awareness of the existence of people across the gender universe. We believe that recognizing and celebrating gender expansiveness will move us closer to a world where we can all be healthy, happy and whole.”
