Disney may not even have bothered to submit Lightyear to censors in Saudi Arabia given their reputation, but the movie was previously scheduled to come out in the UAE on June 16 cinemas there had even started advertising the film. The banning of the movie in select countries is pretty predictable. And mention of heterosexuality is fine because…look, the point of the bill is performative hate, we shouldn’t expect it to be internally consistent.Īnyway, the kiss got put back into Lightyear and Disney did eventually condemn the Florida bill, which meant less hate from the left and more hate from the right.
Pixar was highly critical of Disney’s initial refusal to take a stand on that bill, which bans mention of homosexuality in elementary school classrooms, the logic being, I guess, that mention of such a thing will corrupt children beyond saving…including gay kids, I suppose. At one point in the editing process, this kiss was removed from the film, but it was reinstated following Disney’s lukewarm response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
