Column: Outrage at Beauty and the Beast is unwarranted

March 22, 2017

The live-action remake of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” has been under fire for including an openly gay character.

There’s a scene where LeFou, Gaston’s best friend, is singing about Gaston, which people might think is him expressing his sexuality, but it’s really more like him expressing how great his best friend is.

Another scene shows LeFou dancing with a woman, but then another man butts in and dances with LeFou. The “gay moment” lasts all of two seconds.

In an interview with Attitude magazine, director Bill Condon talked about the gay character, LeFou.

“LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston,” Condon said of the chracters’ relationship. “He’s confused about what he wants. It’s somebody who’s just realizing that he has these feelings. And Josh makes something really subtle and delicious out of it. And that’s what has its payoff at the end, which I don’t want to give away. But it is a nice, exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie.”

Actors of the original “Beauty and the Beast” movie said LeFou was always gay.

“I think LeFou, the character who is officially gay now, always was,” said Bradley Piece in an interview with TMZ.

Piece voiced Chip the teacup in the original movie. Piece also said that what might have made people think otherwise is that in the original movie, LeFou gawks at female triplets.

“The rest of it was all gay bro wingman,” Piece said.

Several movie theaters around the world have either banned the movie or restricted the audience for the movie.

A theater in Alabama was so shocked and appalled by the thought of a gay Disney character that it banned the movie from playing.

In Russia, it classified the movie as a film for “adults only.”

In Malaysia, it won’t play the film unless the “gay” scene is edited out.

In Kuwait, the movie was pulled for edits as part of their censor.

This is only the second time Disney has had characters represent or identify with the LGBT community.

In a Disney XD episode of “Stars vs. the Forces of Evil,” titled “Just Friends,” there is a scene where a boy band was playing a love song and all of the concertgoers in the venue are kissing, including a few same-sex couples. It’s surprising that there wasn’t any controversy about that episode and an uproar about this film.

I saw the movie on its premiere day with the knowledge that the character, LeFou, is gay. It didn’t bother me. In fact, his character made the movie more enjoyable. The actor, Josh Gad, portrayed LeFou so well. As for the “gay scene,” I didn’t find it offensive or overly sexualized. It seemed more like a subtle hint. The scenes with Gaston and LeFou were very PG, just like you’d expect from the romantic scenes of any other Disney movie.

The controversy over the “Beauty and the Beast’s” gay character is uncalled for.

Follow Aurora Begay on Twitter.