It’s been a rough few weeks for Disney and Pixar employees, who have received unheard-of backlash for the very witty and age-appropriate movie Turning Red featuring a plot point about menstruation. In addition to that debacle, employees at Pixar Animation Studios pushed for Disney to do something in the wake of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, and they were effectively silenced, which led to a rebellion and joint statement made to The Walt Disney Company, demanding that the company take a stance on prominent LGBTQ issues, and to stop “cutting gay affection” from their movies. For once, Disney actually…listened?
According to Variety, the upcoming Toy Story spinoff Lightyear features a female character, Hawthorne (played by Uzo Aduba) in a relationship with another woman. Allegedly, a kiss between the two animated characters was cut from the film. Now, the kiss seems to have been reinstated after the employee backlash.
Former Pixar employees anonymously spoke to Variety and confirmed that plot points about LGBTQ characters were frequently shot down, with same-sex relationships either edited out or left to just background characters that appear onscreen for less than a second. Fans even believe that Turning Red originally had a queer character that must have been cut, though there has been no confirmation of this.
Despite the constant pushback, there have been very few LGBTQ hints in Pixar movies, but perhaps this kiss will be the first step towards some more representation…if they do decide to keep it in, after all.
