A new animated series starring beloved kidlit characters "Frog and Toad" is headed to Apple TV+, premiering Friday, April 28. Them is reporting that "gay Twitter" is lauding the adaptation of Arnold Lobel's Caldecott and Newbery Award-winning children's book for its "queer subtext," calling the amphibious friends "one of the internet's favorite queer relationships." (via Deadline)
Even the official description from Apple TV+ plays into that subtext:
Frog is a frog. Toad is a toad. They have a lot in common… but they are also very different. Frog and Toad are best friends who know that the true secret to friendship is not only enjoying the things you have in common, but embracing the things that make you different. Our differences are what makes us special, and Frog and Toad celebrate them in what makes them unique.
Are they a gay couple? In 2016, The New Yorker investigated:
Frog and Toad are "of the same sex, and they love each other," she told me. "It was quite ahead of its time in that respect." In 1974, four years after the first book in the series was published, Lobel came out to his family as gay. "I think 'Frog and Toad' really was the beginning of him coming out," [Arnold's daughter] Adrianne [Lobel] told me.
