Disney scrubbed a trans rights-focused episode of Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur

A few weeks ago, reports started circulating—not confirmed by Disney yet, by-the-by—that well-liked Disney Channel Marvel show Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur was quietly being canceled. Now, the series—about a pre-teen genius and her pet T-Rex, based on the comics series of the same name—is facing new controversy, as it’s being reported that an episode of the show focused on a trans character got yanked off the Disney schedule before it could ever air.

This is per Polygon, reporting on “The Gatekeeper,” an episode of Moon Girl focused on the character of Brooklyn, a trans friend of series lead Lunella Lafayette, and who’s played by Pose star Indya Moore. The episode (which got leaked online today, and is now floating around in those places where people with decent search engine acumen can probably find it) depicts the character openly talking about being trans, earning the ire of a rival volleyball coach/villain, who locks her and her teammates away from being able to play in a tournament. (Not subtle, but subtlety is sometimes overrated.) But while some people who worked on the series have been claiming on social media that the episode was pulled specifically in response to the results of the presidential election, a Disney source, quoted by Polygon, says the company actually made the decision to “hold” the episode nearly a year ago. They added that the company wasn’t uncomfortable with the character of Brooklyn (who’s appeared in six other episodes of the show so far) so much as the specific focus of the episode in question; the company line apparently being a concern that the episode went past the company’s self-applied responsibility to be “respectful of the role that parents play in the discussions they have with their children.” (I.e., Disney doesn’t want to talk to kids about trans rights before their parents do; Moon Girl is apparently aimed at kids aged 6 to 12.)

Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur is still technically in the midst of its second season, with the show still needing to release a few more of its completed episodes. (The one’s it’s going to release, that is, at which point, presumably, it’ll be formally canceled.) No word yet on when “The Gatekeeper” might be, well, un-gate-kept, although given that it’s now been leaked, it’s possible the episode will never officially see the light of day.