News broke on Monday 1st March that Josh Gad’s character in Beauty and the Beast, Lefou, will be the first confirmed gay character to appear in one of their films. I asked young people what they thought about this step forward for Disney.
A bisexual student commented “I’m so happy about Disney’s first Openly Gay character! Its about time they added some diversity to the characters and Lafou looks great for the job!” A resounding vote of confidence from her. Another student, Noor Witwit,17, remarked “I Was pleasantly surprised. We all knew Disney would have a gay character sooner or later, I just didn’t expect it to be so soon. It is Awesome though.” Disney, one of the most recognisable names in the world of children’s cinema, is showing amazing support for the LGBTPQA+ community by creating a gay character, and is taking a step towards equal representation in its movies. In 2009 Disney came out with their first black princess, Tiana, and since then they’ve been breaking their old stereotypes of skinny white princesses who need a prince to save them, with characters Like Moana and Merida. People have been waiting for their first take on a Gay character and we are all excited to see how he turns out. A clip was released of Lafou singing the classic Disney song, Gaston, accompanying this announcement.
So weather you’re a diehard Disney fan or are just looking for something interesting to watch, I’m sure we’ll all be flocking to the cinemas to see Disney’s latest hit.
