Lightyear writer responds after Snoop Dogg expresses fear of on-screen lesbians

“So. I created the LIGHTYEAR lesbians,” Gunderson wrote in a post on Instagram. “In 2018, I was a writer at Pixar – such a cool place, grateful to work there, learned a ton from kind and impressive creatives. As we wrote early versions of what became LIGHTYEAR, a key character needed a partner, and it was so natural to write ‘she’ instead of ‘he.’ As small as that detail is in the film, I knew the representational effect it could have. Small line, big deal. I was elated that they kept it.” 

“I’m proud of it. To infinity,” she continued. “Love is love.”  

In his recent appearance on the It’s Giving podcast, Snoop Dogg shared that he developed his fear of going to the movies after his grandson asked how two women could have a baby together after seeing the brief scene in the 2022 film. “What you see is what you see, and they’re putting it everywhere” the rapper said. He also reflected that the experience “fucked me up. I’m like, scared to go to the movies. Y’all throwing me in the middle of shit that I don’t have an answer for.”

That’s precisely why Gunderson is so happy Pixar kept the explicitly queer moment in the film. “I was proud to see a happy queer couple (even for a few seconds) onscreen,” she continued in the post. “I know they got a lot of shit for this inclusion, but stuff like this matters because beautiful love like this exists. It’s *not* fiction.”