LGBT Disney

[Disney's Divinity]

Yes, I do think Disney should let the government step in and take it down themselves instead of kowtowing them, especially when they are an American company. Let the people living there have another reminder of what kind of government they're living under; I hear there's quite a lot of unrest over there right now as it is. Good.

[Disney Duster]

I agree with Divinity.

[Sotiris]

Which Disney characters do you believe were intentionally gay-coded? I'd say Ursula whose looks and physicality were based on Divine, Hermes from Hercules, Pleakley from Lilo & Stitch, Wiggins from Pocahontas, and the Reluctant Dragon. Ward Kimball allegedly said "some of the conservatives at the studio resented the fact that the dragon sounded pretty gay", though I haven't found the original source for that quote. If we're considering shorts, Cupid from the Silly Symphony "Who Killed Cock Robin" seems intentional too.

People often cite Gaston, Jafar, and Scar, but Andreas Deja has repeatedly denied this, even after he left Disney, so I believe him. Ferdinand the Bull is another oft-cited example, but I think he was meant to be read as sensitive and not effeminate. The same goes for Flower in Bambi and Piglet in Winnie the Pooh. Other possible contenders are Timon and Kuzco who briefly dress in drag for comedic purposes, but I doubt it was intentional in either case. I'm dubious when it comes to the intentionality behind Clawhauser, Oaken (mainly because of this scene in Frozen 2), Terk, Chi-Fu, and Hugo. The Internet has claimed a lot more characters such as the Genie, the Mad Hatter, the Grand Duke, Ratcliffe, Prince John, Shere Khan, Ichabod Crane, Mr. Smee, Sebastian, Rabbit, and Cogsworth, but I find those far-fetched. What do you think?

[Disney's Divinity]

I doubt most of the villains were intentionally coded that way. I think it's more a case of unconscious homophobia, where qualities typically thought of as being outside gender norms are overlayed onto the villains partly because they were made to be a direct inverse of the protagonists who often portrayed traditional gender roles in most of the princess films. Maleficent, Cruella, Ursula, Scar, Gaston, and Jafar are all examples of that, imo. I really doubt any of them were specifically coded as homosexual on purpose. We know from Disney's current standards that gay people aren't allowed any place at all--so of course it wouldn't have been allowed further back in time. Ursula is probably the closest to a deliberate example, but she's very specifically a woman in the film despite the fact that they used Divine as an inspiration to make her "repulsive" to the audience. That, and Ashman probably played a big role in making the character what she is, overall.

[Sotiris]

Disney Plus is celebrating Pride month.


Source: https://twitter.com/disneyplus/status/1 ... 6858231811


Source: https://www.facebook.com/DisneyPlus/pho ... 7434215608

[Sotiris]

Ahem.

Disney Hit With Sexual Orientation Discrimination Suit By ABC Signature VP On First Day Of Pride Month
https://deadline.com/2021/06/disney-pri ... 234767315/

[Disney's Divinity]

The fact that it's timed like that makes it come across staged. I'll read the details in a little while when I have more time though.

[UmbrellaFish]

There was also this super cute image from Disney’s official Twitter with the caption:

There’s room for everyone under the rainbow. Happy #PrideMonth!

https://twitter.com/disney/status/13998 ... 20833?s=21

[estefan]

Disney Plus is celebrating Pride month.


Source: https://twitter.com/disneyplus/status/1 ... 6858231811

Interesting enough, on the Disney+ Canada Twitter Page, they shared the same image, but with "Love, Victor" in place of "The Owl House."

[Sotiris]

Is it really the first time Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars characters are included in Pride merch (or as Disney likes to call it, the "Rainbow Collection"?)

The colourful array of Pride apparel including t-shirts and ears, soft toys, accessories and pin sets, feature Disney – and for the first time ever – Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars icons and characters.

Source: https://thewaltdisneycompany.eu/disney- ... onth-2021/

[UmbrellaFish]

I believe it is the first time they have been featured in Pride merch produced by Disney— which is exclusively sold in Disney Stores, on ShopDisney.com and inside the Disney parks. When I worked at Disney in 2018, the only pride merch I remember seeing was of Mickey in rainbow silhouette and also the Mickey heart gloves which usually had a rainbow somewhere else on the product. There was no other Rainbow merch that featured other characters that I can recall.

[blackcauldron85]

I don't know if it was considered to be a Pride shirt, but there was a Buzz Lightyear rainbow shirt...either from Disney Store or Hot Topic, a few years ago; I had gotten it for my husband.

[thedisneyspirit]

This has just confirmed my suspicions that Disney is the most homophobic company that could ever exist. They can play at being woke all they want, they've never made any real gay representation and they still don't care too. Instead of making Elsamaren canon they're focused on harassing gay employees. Anyone who is an ally will boycott all Disney movies and products. Which won't be hard because they haven't made anything worth watching in over a decade since they care more about vanilla ice sisters.

[Disney's Divinity]

I don't plan to boycott Disney although I sometimes refuse to support particular films / products of theirs. I don't think Honeymaren even had much of a role in Frozen 2 to be a love interest for anyone? If it ends up happening for Elsa, it would have to be with a new character in 3.

[Elladorine]

Baby steps, people. We’re getting there.

[UmbrellaFish]

Elladorine!!! You've been missed!!!

[Sotiris]

Disney+’s “This Is Me: Pride Celebration Spectacular” To Premiere On Youtube And Facebook On June 27
https://dmedmedia.disney.com/news/disne ... rt-june-27

With Disney Pride in Concert, Boston Gay Men's Chorus Sets the LGBTQ Experience to the Music and Magic of Disney
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-release ... 14691.html

Disneyland Paris Pride Will Celebrate Diversity on June 11, 2022, With Many Entertainment Elements and a Live Outdoor Concert With a Pop and Colorful Lineup
https://disneylandparis-news.com/en/dis ... ride-2022/

[thedisneyspirit]

Huh, Disney gonna celebrate pride after firing and discriminating against gay employees and releasing two queerbaiting movies in one year that both wouldn't go all the way like we're still in the 50s.

Disney shoulda went bankrupt during covid to spare us this woke mask they keep trying to fit on.

[Sotiris]

Did anyone else know that Lexington from Gargoyles is supposed to be gay? Apparently, the creator confirmed it during a panel in the mid '00s and reiterated it more recently.

Q: You confirmed during a convention a few years ago that Lexington was gay. When was that decided?

Greg Weisman: We didn’t plan it from the beginning. We didn’t say, "Okay, here’s the big heavy-set character and here’s the gay character." Over time, we learned more about the characters. And towards the end, it occurred to us that Lexington was gay but that he didn’t know it.

Q: And did you inform actor Thom Adcox [who voiced Lexington] of that?

Greg Weisman: No, because there was nothing we felt he needed to change and it was towards the end. I remember it was actually at the Gathering of the Gargoyles in New York that a fan flat-out asked if Lexington was gay and I said, "Yes," and Thom cried out, “I knew it!” It wasn’t "liberal Hollywood’s" plan. It was just the way the character played out. It was just a feeling we all got and I think the vast majority of fans reacted with “I thought so” — which really was my response.

Source: https://www.comicmix.com/2008/07/17/int ... gargoyles/

One thing I’ve talked about with fans is that character of Lexington, one of the gargoyles, was gay. But of course in those days, we couldn’t say that. So we just tried to write him consistently as a gay character, so that if someday, when the world was a different, better place, we could acknowledge it and it wouldn’t seem like it was out of left field.

Source: https://www.polygon.com/disney-plus/202 ... chronicles

[UmbrellaFish]

Yes, it’s been known in the Gargoyles fan community for years. In 2007, Greg Weisman introduced a potential (gay) love interest for Lexington in the comics— although the series was cancelled shortly later so that plot was not fully developed.