‘Peppa Pig’ features a lesbian polar bear couple, marking the series’ first-ever same-sex family

Peppa Pig breaks new ground and features a same-sex couple on the hit British TV show. The popular children’s show featured a lesbian polar bear couple in an episode that aired on Britain’s Channel 5 on Tuesday (September 6), NBC News reports.

The episode, titled “Families,” marks the first time the show has included a same-sex family in its nearly 20-year run.

Penny the Polar Bear describes her family to Peppa in the episode, telling her friend, “I’m Penny the Polar Bear. I live with my mom and my other mom. A mom is a doctor and a mom cooks spaghetti. I love spaghetti,” per CNN.

The scene comes after a call for more representation on Peppa Pig, which debuted in 2004 and follows the adventures of a town of animals, with Peppa at the center. A petition created in 2019 on the Care2 Petitions website called for a “same-sex parent family” on the show and garnered over 23,000 signatures, nearly reaching its goal of 25,000 signatures.

“Children watch Peppa Pig are at an impressionable age, and excluding same-sex families will teach them that only families with one parent or two opposite-sex parents are normal,” reads the description of the petition. “This means that children of same-sex parents may feel alienated by Peppa Pigand that other children may be more likely to bully them, simply out of ignorance.

And Peppa Pig isn’t the only children’s series making incremental progress — another beloved show is also expanding its characters to include a more diverse cast. Thomas and his friends features its first autistic train character, NPR reports.

The character, named Bruno the Brake Car, is voiced by 10-year-old Chuck Smith in the US and 9-year-old Elliot Garcia in the UK; the two young actors are autistic. The first episode featuring Bruno will air in the United States on September 12, according to NPR.