On 27th April, following the release of first look of Disney and Pixar’s “Lightyear”, it has been confirmed that the same-sex kiss has been reinstated. The controversial kiss took place during the half hour preview of Lightyear which premiered at CinemaCon in Las Vegas last week.
Initially, the kiss was taken out and later restored in the animated film in the wake of criticism following Disney’s vague response to the contentious Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill which has been signed into law by governor Ron DeSantis. The law prohibits teaching and discussion about sexuality and gender identity for students of kindergarten to third grade.
The kiss takes place between a character called Alisha Hawthorne and her lover in this kids movie. Although, the character of Lightyear is not the first who comes from the LGBTQ community. In fact, one of the most well-known fictional characters is Spencer in an animated movie titled “Onward” , he is a cyclops police officer and said, “It’s not easy being a new parent — my girlfriend’s daughter got me pulling my hair out, okay?
This latest move occurs after Pixar’s employees denounced Disney’s actions as censoring LGBTQ’s expression of love. In a letter sent to Disney by Employees of Pixar, stated that Disney executives “wanted to cut nearly every moment of overtly gay affection….regardless of when there is protest from both the creative teams and executive leadership at Pixar.”
The letter continues, “We at Pixar have personally witnessed beautiful stories, full of diverse characters, come back from Disney corporate reviews shaved down to crumbs of what they once were. Even if creating LGBTQIA+ content was the answer to fixing the discriminatory legislation in the world, we are being barred from creating it.”
