Does Disney Care About Homosexuals and the LGBTQ+ Movement?

[GeffreyDrogon]

A thing I am a little perplexed about animation-wise is one of the current situations at Disney, which is about the whole homosexual/LGBTQ+ issue.

Sometimes, the company endorses it and wants a LGBT character in one their movies, and at the same time, has to kneel and cut out those characters. The whole thing has gotten worse with Florida and its whole Don't Say Gay bill.

Does Disney really want to have homosexual characters, or what?

[EricJ]

The animators want them, the company doesn't--Or at least doesn't want to officially take sides on any divisive issue that might hurt commerce.
"But they have gay-days at the parks!" No, private organizations do. Disney just doesn't refuse their money.

[Randall]

I think they do care, as many creatives tend to be in that community. But yeah, it comes down to commerce and not wishing to be controversial or potentially offensive to anyone.

[EricJ]

Officially, Disney can't take a stand on anything:
Fact--If you take a photo with Mickey Mouse at Disneyland, not only are you not allowed to wear a political t-shirt, you can't even hold up your bottle of Coke, as either one might be misinterpreted as a corporate endorsement.

[Ben]

Well we all know Mickey prefers Pepsi…

[Bill1978]

Officially, Disney can't take a stand on anything:
Fact--If you take a photo with Mickey Mouse at Disneyland, not only are you not allowed to wear a political t-shirt, you can't even hold up your bottle of Coke, as either one might be misinterpreted as a corporate endorsement.

Considering what is happening in Florida this is quite hilarious and represents the current hypocrisy of what is happening with The Walt Disney Company. Can't be publically political but privately they appear to be quite happy to be political. To come out and say they support LGBTQIA+ by 'creating inspiring LGBTQIA+ content' while donating to politicians supporting the current anti-LGBTQIA+ bill in Florida is definitely a case of having your cake and eating it too. And then after the bill passes whatever the US term is for State Parliament, Disney decides to apply pressure to the Governor not to sign it???

And truthfully, I wouldn't count some of their so called inspiring content that inspiring. At best the characters have one random tiny moment of gayness to tick a box while the rest of the movie they appear to be stereotypically non-queer. And I wouldn't count anything on Hulu or Star as Disney being inclusive, because they aren't brave enough to slap it under the Disney name.

[Farerb]

They are putting a same sex kiss in Lightyear:

Same-Sex Kiss Restored in Pixar’s ‘Lightyear’ Following Staff Uproar Over ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill
https://variety.com/2022/film/news/pixa ... 235209179/

[James]

Just a note to everyone commenting, please remember our rules about politics and keep things extremely civil! We have hair-triggers when it comes to locking political threads that get even slightly of hand!

...To come out and say they support LGBTQIA+ by 'creating inspiring LGBTQIA+ content' while donating to politicians supporting the current anti-LGBTQIA+ bill in Florida is definitely a case of having your cake and eating it too...

I keep hearing this argument, but it's not like Disney donated money to them AFTER they passed this bill. Seems weird to protest them this much due to something they did before the controversy occurred.

...At best the characters have one random tiny moment of gayness to tick a box while the rest of the movie they appear to be stereotypically non-queer...

There's not a lot of stereotypically "straight-ness" in the recent films either. Especially once traditional princess movies fell out of favor. Most everything now is about family, friends, and culture. Romance has been relegated to tiny moments.

[EricJ]

I keep hearing this argument, but it's not like Disney donated money to them AFTER they passed this bill. Seems weird to protest them this much due to something they did before the controversy occurred.

I'm guessing the same rightwing Florida politicians they were supporting were the same ones boosting Ron DeSantis trying to run masks out of the state, and re-open Florida tourism to a wider market. (Which is half the reason DeSantis does ANYTHING anti-vax.)
Unfortunately, once wider mask mandates were lifted across the country, Florida needed a new boogeyman...

[James]

I honestly can't remember the last straight kiss in a Pixar movie! Incredibles 2? Up? Toy Story?

[Dacey]

Yes, but there have been straight kisses in Pixar movies. When they had "the last one" isn't the issue here. There is no shortage of "straight" representation out there.

[Farerb]

In her review of 'Turning Red', Grace Randolph revealed that WDAS's next two films might feature openly LGBTQ+ characters.
One movie would have a non-binary character and the other an openly gay character, and could be a protagonist.

[EricJ]

And it's always the directors or actors proclaiming it to the world first, and never the studios...

Probably because the former are in for a bit of corporate cold-water on their dreams.

[James]

Yes, but there have been straight kisses in Pixar movies. When they had "the last one" isn't the issue here. There is no shortage of "straight" representation out there.

Actually it is on point for this discussion. If there is hardly any kissing in Pixar movies, then the lack of a same sex kiss isn't neccesarily due to any bias. If we're going to allow this discussion, then let's not shut down people with legitimate points you might disagree with.

Speaking of shortage of representation, where are all the positive portrayals of religious characters in animation these days...

[James]

Hey guys. As I mentioned in another post, this is going to be a very busy two weeks for me! Usually this topic would be ripe for the cutting block anyway. So in the interests of protecting my time and sanity, I'm going to go ahead and lock this thread now before it gets out of hand! Maybe we can revisit it at a later date. Thanks for understanding guys!