Days after Disney’s staff sent a statement claiming the company has been actively “censored overtly gay affection” in its film, the decision about removing one scene from the upcoming movie Lightyear has been backed down.
A new report by Variety claims that Disney decided to restore a scene in which two female characters share a kiss, which had been removed.
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A source close to the production said that though the relationship between Hawthorne, a significant female character in the movie stared by Chris Evans, and another woman was never questioned, the scene in which both kiss had been cut from the film. However, after the uproar of some of Pixar’s and Disney’s employees regarding the “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida, the scene was reinstated.
This would turn Lightyear into the first animation movie for kids to depict same-sex affection and make it a major turning point for LGBTQ representation not only in Pixar movies but in animation in general.
According to Variety, in Pixar’s 27-year history, there have been only a small handful of unambiguous LGBT characters. For example, in 2020′s Onward a female character mentions her girlfriend; in 2019′s Toy Story 4 two moms appear on the back hugging their children in 2016′s Finding Dory a lesbian couple appears briefly.
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The lack of LGBTQ active representation is a problem that goes beyond stories, but rather to self-censorship according to Variety.
This is because creators believe that LGBTQ content would not get passed by Disney because it would harm its distribution in markets that are not LGBTQ-friendly like China, Russia, or South America.