Several Muslim Gulf States have banned the Disney/Pixar animated film “Onward” because it features an overtly lesbian character.
“Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have all banned the film due to the reference,” reports Deadline. “The film, released regionally this week, is nowhere to be seen on cinema schedules in those territories. Other Middle East markets such as Bahrain, Lebanon and Egypt are showing the film.”
In February, after Disney kept it under wraps, reports came to light that “Onward” would be the first animated movie to feature an openly LGBTQ character. The character, voiced by Lena Waithe, is reportedly a lesbian police officer whose sexuality becomes explicitly exposed in the movie and is not simply implied as it with the alleged lesbian couple in “Finding Dory” or the “exclusively gay moment” in the “Beauty and the Beast” remake.
Here is how Slate described the moment:
But we don’t need to speculate about Waithe’s Officer Spector. We know because she tells us. When she and her partner, voiced by Ali Wong, pull over a driver who claims he was distracted because his girlfriend’s sons have been acting up, she commiserates, “My girlfriend’s daughter got me pulling my hair out.”
That line isn’t the point of the scene. In fact, it goes by so fast you could barely notice it. But that’s why it works so well. The film doesn’t pause to let it sink in or isolate the moment with a cut for emphasis. It passes unremarked, because in this world, it’s accepted as a fact of life. Some babies have two daddies, and some babies have two mommies, even if those mommies happen to be centaurs or elves.
The movie’s trailer can be seen below: