Disney reportedly adds same-sex kiss back into Lightyear amid "Don't Say Gay" controversy

Disney’s history with LGBTQIA+ issues has been a decidedly rocky one over the years—even in the more modern era, when the company has embraced “representation” in its public messaging, and on the edges of its cinematic output, but clearly balked at allowing same-sex affection to be a regular part of its film-making style in the way heterosexual romance has been for the better part of a century.

That reticence to put its money where its mouse-mouth is was brought into harsh exposure earlier this month, when animators at the company—angered over CEO Bob Chapek’s hesitation to condemn Florida’s oncoming “Don’t Say Gay” bill—revealed that “overtly gay affection” had been removed from a number of films produced at Disney subsidiary Pixar. (Sadly, no details of which scenes and films were affected has been released; we’d love to have a glimpse at what the company’s filmography could have looked like under less stringent Disney control.)

Now, Variety reports on at least one instance of Disney re-inserting a same-sex kiss into its work, as sources have revealed that a cut kiss from the upcoming Lightyear has now been restored. Specifically, a kiss between Hawthorne, one of Buzz’s fellow astronauts (played by Uzo Aduba), and her partner has been put back into the film. Variety notes that Hawthorne’s LGBTQIA+ status was always intended to be in the film, but that in a previous version, the studio had defaulted to its usual “It’s okay to talk about being gay, but not to show it on screen” attitude. (See also Onward, another Pixar film that included verbal mentions of a same-sex relationship for a secondary character, without being willing to show it on screen.)

Chapek issued an apology to employees for his treatment of the proposed Florida legislation last week, condemning it as a “challenge to basic human rights” and pledging to step up the company’s support for LGBTQIA+ causes. Critics at the company, though, have continued to organize protest efforts, including a proposed series of walkouts, on the grounds that, as nice as Chapek’s apology was, it still wasn’t enough to reverse years of the company paying only lip service to the cause.