Disney, as a company, has always been fairly inclusive, but that hasn't always been shown on screen in their movies. Now, it appears that a classic Disney tale is about break new ground. According to a new report, Beauty and the Beast will contain the first ever "exclusively gay moment" in the history of Disney. This moment will apparently revolve around Josh Gad's performance as LeFou, the sidekick to Gaston, who will discover he has feelings about the strongman.
He's confused about what he wants. It's somebody who's just realizing that he has these feelings. And Josh [Gad] makes something really subtle and delicious out of it.
While movies like the new Star Wars films have made obvious inroads when it comes to being more inclusive in regards to gender and race, sexuality is one place that Disney has yet to touch. Many were critical of the studio when, in 2015, they were one of only two studios whose films did not include a single gay character. Fans have been trying to get Disney to include gay characters in their films and it seems that the effort is finally paying off.
While details are scarce in the article from Altitude magazine because they don't want to spoil anything, the question of LeFou's sexuality is described as a "small, but significant subplot." It would seem that at some point LeFou will begin to wonder if his feelings toward Gaston are something beyond idol worship. Director Bill Condon describes some sort of "payoff at the end" so, while it's not clear what that means, it certainly seems that LeFou isn't just being dropped in as a token character, but his character will have some sort of arc.
For the most part, Beauty and the Beast has been promoted as a live-action movie that's going to be more or less identical to its animated predecessor. Now, it seems that may not be entirely the case. The fact of the matter is that we can't say anything about the sexuality of the animated version of LeFou because he simply wasn't a character we spent much time with. He existed pretty much to sing one song with Gaston and that was about it.
Now we have to wonder what other new things Beauty and the Beast has in store for us.
With Disney's first gay character coming to the big screen we will likely see more down the road. Perhaps the calls that Elsa get a girlfriend will be answered when Frozen 2 finally arrives.
