Baby Yoda a New LGBTQ Icon?
There's a new gay icon in town, and he's a pint-sized puppet who goes by the unlikely sobriquet of Baby Yoda.
That's the word on social media in the wake of a controversy that erupted in Mexico when, Pink News reports, Mexico City's Kraneo Foods put figurines of the adorable green alien infant in a seasonal treat known as King Cake, which traditionally conceals a figurine of the Baby Jesus. The religious right promptly called out the substitution, Cracked reports.
King Cake is associated with the Feast of the Epiphany, a religious holiday taking place Jan. 6 that commemorates the Biblical story of the three wise men who follow a star to Bethlehem and discover the newborn infant of Mary and Joseph.
The substitution sparked outrage from right-wing groups, with the head of Mexico's National Front for the Family slamming the tiny toys as "an attack on family values" and "a direct attack on religion," based on the claim that those who put Baby Yoda into the cakes rather than Baby Jesus were "putting aside the holy family," Cracked reported.
Social media went nuts, too, flooding Twitter with memes depicting Baby Yoda as an advocate for LGBTQ equality because, evidently, sending religious conservatives into orbit automatically conferred the status of rights defender onto the popular character. Though an infant belonging to the same race as Yoda from the "Star Wars" films - hence the "baby Yoda" moniker - the character's official name is Grogu. He is the ward of the titular character in the "Star Wars"-related Disney+ streaming series "The Mandalorian."
Have a look at some of the memes circulating at Twitter.