Disney Removing Queer Visibility Isn't Surprising - But It's Bad
A bad sign of where the company, and possibly all corporations, will be going under Trump.
-Inside Out 2 - dir. Kelsey Mann
Earlier today Variety reported that Pixar’s new series Win Or Lose, a show following members of a co-ed middle school softball team, was edited to remove discussion of a character’s gender identity. The show has yet to be released, but the news of the edit made its way to Variety, and a spokesperson for Disney responded:
““When it comes to animated content for a younger audience, we recognize that many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline,” said a spokesperson for Disney.”
-Selome Hailu, Variety
If you’ve been paying attention, this isn’t the first time Disney has cut queer visibility from its recent output. Pixar employees spoke anonymously to Variety about fighting for continued queer representation in various projects, with a lesbian kiss in Lightyear being restored after nearly being cut from the film’s theatrical release. An exception to this is the lesbian kiss in the denouement of The Rise of Skywalker, which received attention for not actually bothering Chinese audiences all that much. Nevertheless this keeps happening, with Inside Out 2 being the latest film to be struck with demands to "make it less gay." Streaming series Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur lost an entire episode, with Polygon reporting that artists who worked on the show lamented Disney’s decision to pull an episode about a trans girl athlete who is trapped in a locker room with a magical key by a parent who opposes her being able to play, who is saved by Moon Girl and her friends. One of Polygon’s sources told them that the company is “respectful of the role that parents play in the discussions they have with their children.” Variety was given a similar line about Win or Lose, that “When it comes to animated content for a younger audience, we recognize that many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline,”
What this all tells me, as someone who has been consistently disappointed but not surprised by these kinds of stories, is that there is a rift in the Disney corporation between the artists on staff and the company’s higher ups. Several Disney artists, including the outspoken Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur staff, want to make art that gives positive visibility of trans youth for families to see. But another class of Disney employee, who likely sees more revenue from a project being a success or a failure, would (best case) rather not stir the pot or (worse case) actively opposes queer storytelling being made with Disney money. Either way, the company is embracing a regressive move that we’ll likely see replicated by other media companies and corporations, especially come June.
As Trump prepares to resume office, corporations pretending to care about queer people, and not just their money, will be able to stop pretending to care and masquerade that their hands are tied, that hate is too strong, that there’s nothing they can do. They are cowards and opportunists and should be treated as such. Queer and trans people cannot put their trust in corporations, especially not those with direct connections to our government.