Disney puts ‘gay scene’ in Beauty and the Beast: Character of LeFou set to explore his sexuality and feelings for leading man Gaston in new film

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James248 said:
Personally I think it is saying more like “This is how it happened,” not “Let’s celebrate this!” Pretty neutral to me. There are a lot of innuendos in PG movies so … 🤷.
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Personally, I think if you’re not crazy about it, then don’t go.
 
Robyn_p said:
Last year I remember a big hoopla about Finding Dory featuring the first ever gay couple in Disney. The Left was celebrating and the Right was panicking…and it ended up being two women walking next to each other. If you were inclined to see them as a couple you could, but it was ambiguous. Same thing with Frozen.

This looks like it’s going to be something similar honestly. A publicity stunt to generate controversy and sell tickets, but in the end the story on both sides will be way overblown. A male character “exploring feelings” for a straight man to me sounds like it’s going to play on screen as an awkward joke.

He’ll probably be staring at Gaston or make a strange compliment and then Gaston will make a comment like “bet you wish you were a woman huh?” and that will be it. Or maybe LeFou will make a few awkward glances when singing “No one’s got a swell cleft in his chin like Gaston.” But I think people are assuming it will be something explicit, and I just highly doubt that. Five or six years from now maybe, but not yet.

Disney is a liberal company, but it’s also extremely risk-averse. They want the largest audience possible, and they are going to continue to try and appeal to both sides until it’s not profitable.

I say this as someone not interested in seeing the new movie because the cartoon is perfect.
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I read a couple of stories about this and it looks like Disney deliberately put a “gay scene” in at the end of the movie. 😦 We won’t know until Friday how bad (or stupid) it is, but it looks like they are making some really bad marketing decisions lately and I suppose there will be other family friendly movies to come out this summer. Disney stock deserves to fall a bit for this. :cool:
 
The director said they intentionally put this scene in to give Disney it’s first explicitly “gay moment.” I read that it also features Disney’s first interracial kiss, which I suspect was put in partially to deflect criticism over the gay scene and to let them attack anyone who opposes the movie as both a homophobe and a racist, even when nothing at all is said about the interracial kiss. We’ll not be patronizing this.
 
Gordon_Sims said:
The director said they intentionally put this scene in to give Disney it’s first explicitly “gay moment.” I read that it also features Disney’s first interracial kiss, which I suspect was put in partially to deflect criticism over the gay scene and to let them attack anyone who opposes the movie as both a homophobe and a racist, even when nothing at all is said about the interracial kiss. We’ll not be patronizing this.
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They’re like snakes.
 
Maxirad said:
Check this out! sigh
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Yep, just found out today. Have not seen that show since the beginning of season two, and now it seems I will continue not seeing it. I also stopped watching Loud House for the same reasons along with other ones. Now all three of the main kids networks are guilty (although I view Steven Universe as the exception to the rule and will continue to use it as an example as to how gay representation should be handled if at all). At least we have My Little Pony and some others as a glimmer of hope…

But yeah, watch the original Beauty and the Beast instead and abstain from Disney for a long while. 🤷
 
Robyn_p said:
Last year I remember a big hoopla about Finding Dory featuring the first ever gay couple in Disney. The Left was celebrating and the Right was panicking…and it ended up being two women walking next to each other. If you were inclined to see them as a couple you could, but it was ambiguous. Same thing with Frozen.

This looks like it’s going to be something similar honestly. A publicity stunt to generate controversy and sell tickets, but in the end the story on both sides will be way overblown. A male character “exploring feelings” for a straight man to me sounds like it’s going to play on screen as an awkward joke.

He’ll probably be staring at Gaston or make a strange compliment and then Gaston will make a comment like “bet you wish you were a woman huh?” and that will be it. Or maybe LeFou will make a few awkward glances when singing “No one’s got a swell cleft in his chin like Gaston.” But I think people are assuming it will be something explicit, and I just highly doubt that.
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Apparently you’re right:

cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/movies/a9089525/lefou-exclusively-gay-moment/

Relevant quote from the article:
…as you’ll not-so-quickly find out, the “exclusively gay moment” is kind of a big dud, and if you hadn’t been warned in advance that it was going to happen, you might not even notice it at all.
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Throughout the movie, LeFou dotes on Gaston as he did in the 1991 animated version, but the big moment comes at the end of the movie, when LeFou sees the error of Gaston’s ways and reforms. During the finale ballroom scene, after LeFou has joined up with Team Belle, LeFou dances with a man. That’s it! That’s all there is…
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All worked up and hyped for nothing I guess… 🤷
 
CatholicWhovian said:
All worked up and hyped for nothing I guess… 🤷
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Not shocked. The reactions to this have been a little…extreme. 🙂 We really don’t need to go into hang wringing, pearl clutching hysterics every time there is some mild reference to gay stuff.

And c’mon, LeFou as gay is a pretty obvious subtext/joke. He literally follows around the burly, ripped guy and sings songs about how physically flawless he is. It’s barely even subtext.
 
BoomBoomMancini said:
Not shocked. The reactions to this have been a little…extreme. 🙂 We really don’t need to go into hang wringing, pearl clutching hysterics every time there is some mild reference to gay stuff.

And c’mon, LeFou as gay is a pretty obvious subtext/joke. He literally follows around the burly, ripped guy and sings songs about how physically flawless he is. It’s barely even subtext.
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Well that’s a relief. I’m usually fine with gay references as long as it’s subtle and meant for non-offensive humor.

I’m suddenly reminded of two incidents last year: the Finding Dory hoopla and an episode of the new Powerpuff Girls series where apparently one of the crewmembers stated there was going to be a trans character who wanted to change from a horse to a unicorn, but then the episode aired and it turned out the horse was really a unicorn even after going through the trouble of modifying his body and turning into a monster. So that ultimately was a supposed publicity stunt. Sounds very similar to this.

Regardless, I won’t watch the film and will save my money to see the My Little Pony movie later this year, an all-ages film that I’m certain will be much more entertaining, enjoyable, and more like classic Disney than many other recent properties.
 
BoomBoomMancini said:
Not shocked. The reactions to this have been a little…extreme. 🙂 We really don’t need to go into hang wringing, pearl clutching hysterics every time there is some mild reference to gay stuff.
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That is the exact mentality they are banking on majority of people to have at controversies like this…if you want to change public opinion/ sentiment about something, its more effective to do it slowly and methodically, over the course of many years, sometimes done very subtly, even to point where someone does not notice. Its really desensitization and acclimation.

Eventually this controversy will go away, it just wont be an issue anymore, kind of like inter-racial couples in tv and movies were decades ago, its not even debated anymore, majority of people accept that this is fine now, but at one time, it was the opposite.

It was said on one of these similar threads awhile back that if you want to get an idea on what some of the next big controversies or fights are going to be, look at what is currently illegal and/ or viewed as disgusting by most people, (in terms of sexuality)…hint hint.
 
BoomBoomMancini said:
And c’mon, LeFou as gay is a pretty obvious subtext/joke. He literally follows around the burly, ripped guy and sings songs about how physically flawless he is. It’s barely even subtext.
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I have suspicions that Le Fou being made “gay” in the live-action film is some sort of fan service, since so many fans of the original animated film had the same assumptions/jokes about it.
 
mikekle said:
Tkind of like inter-racial couples in tv and movies were decades ago, its not even debated anymore, majority of people accept that this is fine now, but at one time, it was the opposite.
.
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Yup. Exactly like they did in cases of black people, interracial marriage etc.
(in terms of sexuality)…hint hint.
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Yet it was Catholic Church who got burned…hint hint. 😃
 
Yet it was Catholic Church who got burned…hint hint.
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Please correct me if I’m wrong, but are you bashing the Catholic Church on a Catholic forum? If I’m wrong, I apologize. By if I’m not please try to be more respectful.

Thanks.
 
Otar_Mendes said:
Yet it was Catholic Church who got burned…hint hint. 😃
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I am not sure why you find that so amusing, except maybe for your Atheist status.

It’s always amazing how some Atheists have nothing better to do with their free time than come to a Catholic site to share their apparent “happiness” with Catholics, while others come respectfully, intelligently and tolerantly.
 
On the Facebook page for Decent Films, Steven D. Greydanus has written the following:

Regarding BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and its “exclusively gay moment,” a Facebook friend who is a Christian and a smart cinephile writes:​

Is it possible that…
  1. Disney & company knows/knew that Beauty & Beast remake sucked? (Trailers look awful.), and
  2. Leaked/promoted the openly gay character on purpose,
  3. Knowing full well that the usual suspects (Franklin Graham et al) would respond in the usual way (boycott!!!), prompting
  4. Anti-homophobic rhetoric (better not give this a bad review or people will think I’m with the fundies) and identity politics decisions a la affaire Chick-fil-A (I must go see this movie or the Religious alt-Right wins!), and
  5. Hey, if the movie does tank, Disney now has a built in excuse?
Think before you freak out and call for boycotts.
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