Though several other films, to include children’s titles, have begun to include gay characters and themes, Beauty and the Beast has intentionally marketed their ‘blink of an eye’ gay moment…
I’ve seen a good deal about the controversial gay character in Beauty and the Beast, and while I haven’t seen the movie yet, the director mentioned that there will be a uniquely gay moment in the movie. Gaston’s sidekick, LaFou, played by Josh Gad, is homosexual and has a crush on Gaston. This has created quite a controversy among conservatives. Russia is considering a ban of the movie as gay propaganda, and a movie theatre in Alabama is refusing to play it. On top of that, many parents are wondering what messages will be sent to their children if they see the movie.
The biggest annoyance for me stems from the behavior of the director. Between sports, movies, TV, local newspapers, TV news, theatre, church, and social media, there doesn’t seem to be a place where you can avoid getting preachy political messages. It seems like moral preening and a sense of superiority automatically comes with a liberal view of life. The bragging by the director of the movie created a needless controversy. Like the gay couple in Finding Dory, or one possible subtext in Frozen, most of these instances are blink and you miss it moments, so I’m not sure anybody would have cared…except when the director wanted to seem extra politically correct and advertised the gay moment featured in the movie.
Even so, having a gay background character is not a big deal. I watched the movie Airplane a great deal as a kid and can still quote it regularly (“Looks like I picked a bad day to quit smoking”). There was one background character that was obviously gay and it never scarred my childhood or brainwashed me into accepting some kind of secular liberal agenda. He was just a funny guy in a fun movie. In fact, I recently watched this movie with my daughter and she loved it too. She didn’t ask me about that gay guy or start exploring some secret gay agenda. She enjoyed the movie and moved on.
According to various reports, the Beauty and the Beast character will have a blink-and-you-miss-it gay moment, like picking a male dancing partner at the end of the movie, and a single joke that will go over the heads of kids but make adults chuckle. Overall, it doesn’t seem like a big deal worthy of banning or protest. The only annoyance really comes from yet another example of moral preening, outrage, and endless arguing from liberals and conservatives over a silly background character. Personally, my daughter told me that her mom really wants to take her, (we’re divorced), so I’m enjoying the fact that I can save my money, avoid the movie, and maybe have a burger instead without making it a protest.
Morgan Deane is an OpsLens Contributor and a former U.S. Marine Corps infantry rifleman. Deane also served in the National Guard as an Intelligence Analyst.
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