Disney's 8 'First Openly Gay' Characters: A Short History

Contents:

• IS LU PIXAR’S FIRST GAY MOVIE? MAYBE
• WHAT WAS THE FIRST MOVIE WH AN OPENLY GAY MA CHARACTER?
• 5 THGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE MCU'S FIRST OPENLY GAY SUPER-POWERED CHARACTER
• DISNEY'S 8 'FIRST OPENLY GAY' CHARACTERS, RANKED (BY HOW EMBARRASSED DISNEY SHOULD FEEL)
• HOW MANY TIM IS DISNEY GOG TO INTRODUCE ITS ‘FIRST’ GAY CHARACTER?
• DISNEY JT CAST ITS FIRST OPENLY GAY MOVIE CHARACTER, BUT THERE’S A CATCH
• PIXAR SHORT FILM ‘OUT’ FEATUR STUD’S FIRST GAY MA CHARACTER
• ALL 10 TIM DISNEY INTRODUCED ITS FIRST OPENLY GAY CHARACTER (AND GAVE US NOTHG)
• ONWARD’S OPENLY GAY CHARACTER STILL LEAV DISNEY BEHD S PETORS
• JUNGLE CISE: DISNEY’S FIRST GAY MA CHARACTER (AND COMG OUT SCENE) EXPLAED
• PIXAR’S “OUT” WILL FEATURE DISNEY’S FIRST ANIMATED GAY MA CHARACTER - INSI THE MAGIC

IS LU PIXAR’S FIRST GAY MOVIE? MAYBE

The pany has never been known for s great LGBTQ+ reprentatn or polics, but 's e unr even more scty than ual after fans learned that the pany was donatg money to legislators Florida backg that state's ntroversial "Don't Say Gay" bill. Especially when the news broke that Pixar has been censorg gay ntent out of s films for Disney really been producg enough spirg ntent to unteract s donatns and lack of a statement? When this live-actn remake me out, Disney touted LeFou (played by Josh Gad) as beg their first gay character and even said that he had an "exclively gay moment" the film.

WHAT WAS THE FIRST MOVIE WH AN OPENLY GAY MA CHARACTER?

Disney and Marvel Studs proudly announced that 2019 they had troduced their first gay character the Marvel Cematic Universe, only to have fans fd out that was an unnamed character one scene played by the movie's straight -director. MacGregor, played by Jack Whehall, was supposed to be Disney's "first major gay character" when Jungle Cise was set to be released way back 2019, but bee of the global panmic, the film was layed until 2021.

Marvel's first gay superhero and the first married gay uple the MCU both happened 2021, which was que the year for "First Gays" for the pany. Artie is one of several characters advertised as the pany's "first major gay character" after both LeFou Bety and the Beast and MacGregor the layed-for-several-years Jungle Cise. After news broke that Disney not only donated to legislators backg anti-gay bills, but also repeatedly cut queer ntent om their movi, Pixar cid to rtore a scene the Lightyear film where a female character named Hawthorne (voiced by Uzo Aduba) kiss her female partner.

Comedian Jaboie Young-Whe will be voicg a new character the upg animated film Strange World who is volved "the first openly gay teen romance a Disney feature" acrdg to Twter er Matthiew Saghezchi, who saw a clip om the film at the Annecy 2022 ftival.

5 THGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE MCU'S FIRST OPENLY GAY SUPER-POWERED CHARACTER

While gay characters were equently ed for lghs or not explicly stated to be queer the earlit mastream Hollywood films, a brief relaxatn Germany's film productn the early 20th century allowed for LGBTQ+ classics like "Different om the Others" and "Mädchen Uniform. Later, the New Queer Cema the 1990s flourished as many pennt filmmakers (many of whom were gay) told fluid, empathetic stori about queer dividuals. The film, which featur an all-Black st, was one big step toward makg gay cema that isn't whewashed, featur a range of inti, and don't make s queer characters one-note or vehicl of sufferg.

The German film "Anrs als die Anrn" (English: "Different om the Others") is one of the olst survivg movi wh a gay protagonist and was ma durg a rare perd when German film censorship was relaxed after World War I.

DISNEY'S 8 'FIRST OPENLY GAY' CHARACTERS, RANKED (BY HOW EMBARRASSED DISNEY SHOULD FEEL)

It centers on a vlist who tak his life after gettg blackmailed for his sexualy and ends wh an appeal for gay tolerance by German gay rights activist Magn Hirschfeld. Charl Bryant's adaptatn of gay wrer Osr Wil's play of the same name reportedly featured several queer llaborators—namely, bisexual lead actor Alla Nazimova and set signer Natacha Rambova (her mored lover). In one scene om the 1938 screwball edy "Brgg Up Baby, " the word "gay" was ed a queer ntext for likely the first time (possibly thanks to queer performers' e of "gay" as a slang term).

HOW MANY TIM IS DISNEY GOG TO INTRODUCE ITS ‘FIRST’ GAY CHARACTER?

When a woman asks reputedly bisexual actor Cary Grant's character why he's wearg a feathery bathrobe, he rponds, "Bee I jt went gay all of a sudn! Loosely based on the Leopold and Loeb murr se, Aled Hchck's "Rope" tells the story of two heavily d gay men who murr one of their classmat for the sheer thrill of .

"Victim" opens 1960s London, where a man's ath leads the film's gay ma character (Dirk Bogar) to disver a blackmail scheme agast several gay men. While "The Children's Hour" is notable for prentg a sympathetic queer ma character a time when that was rare, has also been cricized for rercg the "tragic gay endg" stereotype. "Portra of Jason" was shot over 12 hours, as experimental filmmaker Shirley Clarke terviewed Jason Holliday, a Black gay sex worker and aspirg baret dancer.

DISNEY JT CAST ITS FIRST OPENLY GAY MOVIE CHARACTER, BUT THERE’S A CATCH

Although one uld argue that such a gelg terview procs was exploative, Holliday's mgs about his life, dreams, and art the face of societal anti-Blackns and homophobia provi the kd of tersectnal look at LGBTQ+ inty that '60s media sorely lacked. Produced durg the fal months of the Hays Co, Robert Aldrich's film about the breakdown of an agg lbian TV actor clud a lbian sex scene that broke down a major taboo associated wh the Co's erasure of gay characters on screen.

PIXAR SHORT FILM ‘OUT’ FEATUR STUD’S FIRST GAY MA CHARACTER

Origally an Off-Broadway play by Mart Crowley, the film explor the unrlyg tensns that surface when a iendly group of gay New Yorkers gathers for a birthday party.

"Word Is Out: Stori of Some of Our Liv" prised terviews wh 26 lbians and gay men who spoke about their liv and experienc as part of the LGBTQ+ muny.

ALL 10 TIM DISNEY INTRODUCED ITS FIRST OPENLY GAY CHARACTER (AND GAVE US NOTHG)

William Friedk's "Cisg" was reviled by many gay viewers, wh one pamphlet sayg that, the film, "gay men are prented as one-dimensnal sex-crazed lunatics … It is a film about why we should be killed. Gay first-time director Bill Sherwood's "Partg Glanc" is regard as the first film to al wh the AIDS crisis, which had a vastatg impact on gay and bisexual men particular the late 1980s and early 1990s.

ONWARD’S OPENLY GAY CHARACTER STILL LEAV DISNEY BEHD S PETORS

In the early 1990s, several openly gay directors beme volved pennt cema, creatg a crop of queer movi that treated sexualy as fluid—exampl clu "Orlando, " "My Own Private Idaho, " "Poison, " and many more.

JUNGLE CISE: DISNEY’S FIRST GAY MA CHARACTER (AND COMG OUT SCENE) EXPLAED

Starrg major Hollywood actors like Patrick Swayze, John Leguizamo, and Wley Snip as drag queens, "To Wong Foo" was the rare, explicly gay stud film that rose to the top of the box office durg s first two weeks theaters. After years of tellg bold stori featurg gay and trans characters, his film "All About My Mother, " which follows a woman who rennects wh her ex-partner (a trans woman) won Bt Foreign Language Film at the 2000 Amy Awards.

Ang Lee's film about the long-term secret romance between two wboys (Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger) ma history as one of the first big mastream movi that centered on a gay love story. LGBTQ+ media advocy anizatn GLAAD puts out a yearly report on queer reprentatn media, and s 2019 report showed hopeful signs that media is beg more clive, wh a rerd number of gay characters on screen.

Throughout the film, the characters’ attractns are fluid, makg this one of the earlit films to feature lbian, gay, bisexual/pansexual, and transgenr them. That outle holds an obv potential for queer allegory, and ed many Pixar fans trackg the film’s velopment quickly labeled Lu as the stud’s “gay movie”—a g-out story to be placed on Pixar’s mantle alongsi s medatns on grief, artistic exprsn, lonels, Ayn Rand-ian objectivism, and parentg. ” That suggts a limed unrstandg of gay growg up, particularly of when our feelgs of affectn and special closens and difference n first velop.

PIXAR’S “OUT” WILL FEATURE DISNEY’S FIRST ANIMATED GAY MA CHARACTER - INSI THE MAGIC

I'm sure there are plenty of never-released gay/lbian films om early cema, but what was the first film released theaters for the general public?

For this qutn, let's nsir openly gay someone who claims they are gay wh words, or participat PDA on screen (not lookg for films wh implitn of sexualy, but factual evince). Though there were var gay stereotyp film before , I stggle to fd an earlier movie that had a lbian character ( this movie a 14 year old stunt love wh her female teacher) that actually nfs her love. German cema ntas some earlier exampl like Sex Chas om 1928 and Different om the Others om 1919 mentned knut's answer, but the former only ntaed ambiguo homoerotic them and the latter was severely censored and rtricted.

He's not the first queer MCU character; he's the first out, super-powered MCU character In 2019's Avengers: Endgame, -director Joe Rso played an unnamed gay man a brief scene at a support group. Screenshot: DisneyArtie is never explicly picted as queer Disney’s new villa orig story, which ma all the hubbub that he was the latt “First” gay character at the stud all rather silly.