On March 9, LGBTQ employees and allies who work for Pixar had sent a joint statement to the leadership at Walt Disney. They asserted that Disney executives removed “overtly gay affection” in movies made by the animation company. This protest followed the larger protest by employees who were extremely annoyed with their bosses for not taking action against the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill passed in Florida.
Variety reports that there has been at least one step taken forward as a source close to the production of “Lightyear” which is Pixar’s next feature film said that a kiss between two characters, both of whom are women, had been earlier cut. Now, the scene has been restored.
The movie features Buzz Lightyear and is a spinoff of Toy Story. The new version portrays a more realistic depiction of how Buzz Lightyear is trained. Chris Evans voices the role of Lightyear. The film shows how he protects the universe from villain Emperor Zurg.
Employees of Pixar Animation had objected to the censorship of a scene where Hawthorne, voiced by Uzo Aduba, kisses her partner, who belongs to the sex as her. However, the scene has reportedly being added back before the scheduled release on June 17, 2022 in theaters near you.
An employee said that there was no debate about the portrayal of a same sex relationship in the film. What upset employees was the removal of the kiss scene as it indicated intimacy between two partners of the same sex.
The letter by Pixar employees said that the LGBTQ employees and their allies at Pixar had personally seen beautiful stories with characters who were diverse, “come back from Disney corporate reviews shaved down to crumbs of what they once were.” The letter also mentioned that Disney cut almost every moment of “overtly gay affection.”
In the past, Disney has avoided portraying overtly gay affection in its movies as they have an international release and some countries will not allow such portrayals. It remains to be seen if the kiss scene would be censored when “Lightyear” is released in markets that have strict laws and rules against the LGBTQ community.
