It's really too bad that this has to spread like poison into the minds of our children. Way to go Disney, I am not impressed. Internet...Earlier this year, controversy erupted in Florida when the state passed a law prohibiting teaching about LGBT issues to public school children from kindergarten to third grade. The law quickly came under fire from many in Hollywood and in left-leaning political circles. Pressure mounted on Disney to make a statement, since the company’s iconic theme park Walt Disney World resides in Orlando, Florida. Disney didn’t initially respond. But according to multiple reports, Pixar reinstated a same-sex kiss in the film in response to the Florida law, using a film to comment on the political and cultural conversation and controversy about LGBT representation. Deadline.com’s Dade Hayes writes: “Pixar was one of the loudest voices criticizing Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s handling of the Florida bill, and said in a letter leaked to the press that the company had suppressed same-sex elements in Pixar projects.” In recent years, we’ve witnessed growing inclusion of LGBT characters in movies and TV shows aimed at children. Disney has actually come under fire for being reluctant to participate in this trend. Yes, we’ve had blink-and-you’ll-miss-it images of two moms with a child in the background, or verbal allusions to same-sex relationships. But Lightyear’s depiction of a same-same relationship and multi-decade marriage catapults Disney to the vanguard of this cultural controversy. To my mind, what’s most noteworthy here isn’t really the kiss that we see, but the fact that the film depicts everything around it as completely normal and unremarkable. Buzz obviously knows that Alisha is gay. The couple then gets married, has a child (the biological details there are never explained), and lives decades together, all without ever suggesting that this is anything other than how things are supposed to be. This worldview is, pardon the pun, light years beyond LaFou’s giggling innuendo hinting at his attraction to Gaston in 2017’s Beauty and the Beast remake. Instead, it fully embraces a perspective on these issues in direct conflict with what Scripture teaches about the purpose and place of sexuality in marriage between a man and a woman. For many fans of Pixar and Toy Story, Disney’s deliberate, intentional and political embrace of such a radical, activist position on this issue will come as an enormous disappointment. Buzz Lightyear is a beloved, iconic character. And apart from this issue, his origin is story is one that many families otherwise would have enjoyed. But just as Disney feels it must take a particular stand on this cultural issue, many families with equally strong, sincerely held biblical convictions will likely choose to pass on Lightyear’s advocacy of the LGBT agenda here.
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