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Time running Light year it couldn’t be better. Or maybe worse. Based on the Toy history action figure, the latest from Pixar is the story of a brave space guard, Buzz Lightyear, who is determined to finish his mission and save the group of people who feel responsible for abandonment on a distant planet. But in the true Pixar way, Buzz’s journey represents a quest to learn from mistakes and accept shortcomings. For some, though, there’s another message, and it’s one they don’t seem to accept: queer people exist.
Light year, which hits U.S. theaters today, is already facing bans in several countries in the Middle East and Southeast Asia for kissing between two women: Buzz Commander Alisha Hawthorne (voiced by ‘Uzo Aduba) and his wife. And in America, which is currently the month of LGBTQ + pride, the film has found itself in the midst of a cultural war over whether it is okay to talk to children about people who have seen and will see their whole lives.
Disney probably knew this was coming. In March, Variety reported that the studio had cut off the kiss at one point, only to restore it after employees protested. That was in the midst of the company’s disappointing response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Disney then held a virtual meeting where Latoya Raveneau, one of the company’s executive producers, defended the Mouse House, saying everyone had welcomed her “no-secret gay agenda.” When the video of Raveneau’s statements was leaked, it became, as Michelle Goldberg said. The New York Times, “a national object of right-wing fury and disgust.”
Fast forward to this week and conservative commentators are clinging to those comments. saying “Parents should be aware of this before deciding whether to take their children to see it Light year. ” Chris Evans, the voice of Buzz, for his part, has called people who react negatively to the portrayal of queer people in the film “idiots”, adding that “the goal is to ignore them. , move forward and embrace the growth that makes us human ”.
All this is coming at a (difficult) time for LGBTQ + rights. In addition to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” Bill, which bans sexuality and gender identity education in kindergarten through third grade classrooms and was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in late March, there are several other measures currently being developed in the state legislatures. . Many of them target trans people and focus on queer children and queer topics in schools. Last Saturday, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho police arrested 31 members of the white nationalist Patriot Front group on charges of conspiracy to commit a riot at a Pride event. That same day, several people, one of them wearing a “Kill Your Local Pedophile” T-shirt, interrupted a Drag Queen Story Hour at a library in the Bay Area. Meanwhile, “Hide the Pride” efforts are aimed at removing LGBTQ + compatible books from libraries.
