Facebook Group Calling for First Disney Gay Character
February 08, 2010
While progression in gay rights have been moving forward since the days of Stonewall with gay television characters recently being accepted and becoming more prevalent on television, a distinct lack of gay characters in animation still exists.
Anna Temby, a University of Leeds graduate, has endeavoured to set up a Facebook group calling for a Disney film with a gay character in the lead, hoping it would happen faster than the film corporation took to create a black female princess lead, which took them 80 years.
The group called “Disney needs to create a gay lead character!” In its description said: “It's taken over 80 years for Disney to create a black princess protagonist, let's not wait another 80 years for a gay lead character!”
There are already so many gay undertones in Disney films and characters who most definitely aren't straight *cough* Ryan from High School Musical, let's not beat about the bush and openly have a film with a gay lead.”
The group has grown in a matter of days to a 775 strong membership with the number still growing. The wall has been abuzz with comments from members both opposing and supporting the aim of the group.
One person was quite angry in her opposition to the idea of having in a gay character and said she felt Disney was perfect and should not change. She said: “Disney is perfect the way it is and should not be tampered by over the top equality and all the rest of the b***t!!
Most contributors however felt it would be a good idea, since most gay characters in general enforce the gay stereotypes with gay men being flamboyant and lesbians being butch. A potential gay lead, with a gay storyline could potentially bridge the gap.
On the discussion board on the topic of the ideal lead gay character, one member said: “At the moment, the media still seems only to be able to accept gay characters that are very stereotypical. It allows people to feel fluffy and comfortable that the only gay people they see wear pink and have tight fitting clothes or are butch women - because that way people can disassociate themselves from it. I think that in mind it would be much better if they were to have a gay story line - which wouldn’t be for a very very long time... It would be better if it was done amongst animals and not people.
He added: On another topic - Glee is about to bring in a new male character who will be the boyfriend of an already established gay character, once there are more gay romances portrayed on television aimed at an audience that might be a bit old for Disney but a bit young for other things like Glee then maybe eventually that will be able to filter into children’s programming”
The group surely has generated some interesting exchanges on the topic of a lead gay character; something hoped to reach the Disney group, potentially bringing about a change.
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