Photo: TikTok
"Sad beige babies."
By Isaac Serna-Diez — Written on Mar 07, 2023
After sharing a video of a rainbow mural her kids painted in her daughter's bedroom, a mom on TikTok has decided to paint over the artwork after learning what the color represented.
Dr. Cristina Magalong, a TikTok creator with a doctorate in education, frequently posts videos of and about her two children. In one of her latest videos, she shared that her kids were painting. This time, however, they were fixing up a “boring” bedroom, but opted for a color scheme that didn’t sit right with their momma.
In the very first video, she explained that she hadn’t liked the colors that her daughter picked out, and even said “I hope she changed her mind soon.”
However, upon uploading the video, the mom-of-two discovered another "issue" with the colors — and it wasn't related to her personal aesthetic.
The mom was upset because her daughter chose the colors of the ‘bi flag.’
Without realizing it, Dr. Magalong’s daughter had selected the colors pink, blue and purple, which are very similar to the magenta, purple, and blue colors in the bisexual flag.
Although the original video that caused outrage was deleted, there was enough time for people to stitch it and keep the contents ingrained on the internet forever.
In response to a comment that read “but we’re the problem right? You’re literally teaching your kids to hate us,” she explained her thought process in the now-deleted video.
“For context, I do [project-based learning] with my kids and in our current project they painted their room choosing their own design and color,” she explained. “Apparently my daughter picked out the colors of the bi flag, so we talked about being gay and how it doesn’t fit with our own belief in Christianity.”
The erasure of LGBT+ beliefs rubbed many people the wrong way.
While Dr. Magalong's did state in her caption, “it’s not a sin, it has never been a sin. You can be a Christian and gay” viewers are concerned about the message she's sending to both her children and her followers.
People in the comments called the woman out, explaining that their daughter was so young and had absolutely no idea what any of the colors meant, so pushing these beliefs onto such an impressionable mind was furthering a “hateful” narrative.
“I feel so sad for your kids being exposed to your closed-minded, harmful, and hateful views,” one of the comments read.
One woman shared her personal experience from her sheltered childhood, saying “I grew up in the same home with the same views and ended up hating my parents for the way [they] raised me and pushed their beliefs on me. I pray for [you].”
Fortunately, statistics show adults are becoming more accepting of queer children with a 2022 study by The Trevor Project finding that two-thirds of U.S. adults said they would be comfortable if their child came out to them as gay, lesbian, or bisexual, while only 13% would not be comfortable at all.
Dr. Magalong didn’t seem to care and covered up the rainbow.
In an update, she revealed that the rainbow was “too much” for her and so they reverted the room back to a boring beige with a spackled art project that would give the walls a return to neutral colors.
“Sad beige babies,” one user commented, as another claimed, “I would run away.”
They criticized the woman for being selfish and saying that her daughter’s room was too much for her, commenting things like “too much for you?? it's her room.”
The mother liked how the new spackled canvases turned out, so it looks like she won’t be introducing her children to anything colorful any time soon.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Keep up with his rants about current events on his Twitter.