Seems like Snoop Dogg has learned from his controversial statements over the Disney animated film Lightyear.
According to Variety, the rapper and multihyphenate entertainer is partnering with GLAAD to support its LGBTQ+ youth anti-bullying initiative, Spirit Day. To kick off the campaign, Snoop sat down with Jeremy Beloate, a queer singer who was also on Team Snoop on The Voice, to discuss Spirit Day and their recent collaboration on a new song, “Love Is Love.” The song is also featured on Snoop’s animated children’s YouTube show, Doggyland.
In the episode featuring the song, Beloate voices a puppy named Zippy, who helps Snoop’s character Bow Wizzle sing about families of all types.
Snoop said about the song and is featured on Doggyland, “It’s a beautiful thing that kids can have parents of all walks and be shown love, to be taught what love is…being able to have parents from all walks of life, whether it be two fathers, two mothers, whatever it is, love is the key.”
Snoop Dogg says it is ‘all about love’
Snoop also said in a statement that what he’s focused on is teaching children about the importance of love.
“At the end of the day, it’s all about love–that’s what we’re teachin’ the kids with ‘Love is Love,'” he said. “Partnering with GLAAD for Spirit Day just felt right, because spreading love and respect for everybody is what real gangstas do. We’re showin’ the next generation that kindness is cool, inclusion is powerful, and love always wins.”
The collaboration comes after Snoop’s off-color comments about watching Lightyear with his grandchildren. He said during an August episode of the podcast It’s Giving that he felt scared to watch the film with his grandkids because of the presence of a same-sex family–two women astronauts (one of whom was voiced by Uzo Aduba) who kiss in one scene and raise a child together.
The rapper said he wasn’t prepared to be asked by his grandson about the two women who had a child.
“It f****d me up. I’m like, scared to go to the movies,” he said. “Y’all throwing me in the middle of s**t 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.”
How people responded to Snoop Dogg’s controversial comments
Many people, including Lauren Gunderson, a writer for the film, responded to Snoop’s commentary.
“I created the Lightyear lesbians,” she wrote on social media, as reported by Entertainment Weekly. “In 2018, I was a writer at Pixar–such a cool place, grateful to work there, learned a ton from kind and impressive creatives. As we wrote early versions of what became Lightyear, a key character needed a partner, and so it was natural to write ‘she’ instead of ‘he.’ As small as that detail is in the film, I knew the representational effect it could have. Small line, big deal. I was elated that they kept it. I’m proud of it. To infinity.”
Trans icon Ts Madison also sounded off on Snoop’s comments, telling TMZ at the time, “Snoop Dogg has historically been an advocate against censoring, and his fame is based on expression. So my question is, Snoop. You have music videos with women dancing and kissing other women, dancing naked. So why is displaying lesbian behavior in your music videos appropriate? And you are afraid to answer the questions from your grandchildren?”
“As a parent, you should also explain to your children that other things exist in the world outside of what you have deemed normal in your own home,” she continued. “It’s rooted in a bit of homophobia because you’re never afraid to talk to your kids about having a little boyfriend or a little girlfriend at a certain age,” she continued. “I know that we’ve been conditioned to be able to, like, understand heteronormative activity. We’ve been conditioned because that’s all we see. We’ve always, as queer people, been pushed to the side and swept under. So it is time for us to have these uncomfortable conversations.”