Disney facing fresh claims of homophobia following shocking insider reports

Fans of Disney Pixar have expressed their shock following insider reports that Inside Out 2 was altered to be “less gay” in the midst of growing criticism of Disney’s LGBTQ+ history.

The famous 2015 family movie Inside Out 2 follows 13-year-old Riley (Kensington Tallman) as she enters puberty and anxiety (Maya Hawke) runs wild in her head as her emotions try to adjust to this new stage of life.

Inside Out 2 has become the highest-grossing animated picture of all time, easily surpassing the $1 billion (£753 million) mark, thanks to the plot’s great success.

During the movie, Riley attends a hockey camp where she meets the effortlessly cool captain Val (Lilimar Hernandez) who she immediately puts on a pedestal – and LGBTQ+ fans were quick to speculate whether Riley was in the throes of a crush.

This was only fuelled by the thread throughout the film that Riley was hiding a ‘Deep Dark Secret’.

The dynamic was never explicitly addressed in the film, but now emerging sources from inside Pixar Animation Studios (a subsidiary of Disney) have claimed they were instructed to ensure the relationship came across as platonic.

Anonymous Pixar employees told IGN that they were told to make the film ‘less gay’ which led to numerous edits.

Sources spoke about rumours that a particular focus was put on Riley and Val’s relationship, with lighting and tone adjusted to remove traces of ‘romantic chemistry.

‘[It was] just doing a lot of extra work to make sure that no one would potentially see them as not straight,’ one source alleged to the publication.

In 2022, Disney was blasted by employees for not only their initial response to Florida’s ‘Dont Say Gay’ bill, but also demands from corporate executives to cut any ‘overtly gay affection’ from films even when creative teams and Pixar executives ‘protested’, per a letter obtained by Variety.

Now sources are saying that Disney execs have used the box-office failure of Lightyear – which featured a lesbian character and brief same-sex kiss – as an excuse for this approach.

‘It is, as far as I know, still a thing, where leadership, they’ll bring up Lightyear specifically and say, “Oh, Lightyear was a financial failure because it had a queer kiss in it”. That’s not the reason the movie failed,’ one source shared.

The latest claims have garnered a furious fan response on social media, with people slamming the company as ‘homophobic’ and reiterating that Lightyear didn’t fail because of a fleeting kiss (which was even temporarily removed at the time).

‘Lightyear failed because there was barely any marketing for it, not a same-sex kiss that lasted for a second of screen time.

‘This is just out of touch and homophobic Disney executives taking another step backwards at the same time they pretend to be allies,’ @nerdysasquatch wrote on X.

‘It must take so much mental energy to be so homophobic, like truly unhinged levels of monitoring,’ @unseriousliz added.

‘Homophobia in 2024 is crazy,’ @m00nlightstars echoed.

‘Disney back at it again with the gay censorship,’ @bump1ndat wrote.

‘Stop blaming queer community for your inability to write a good movie. Lightyear was garbage, even without the gay kiss scene, it’s still going to be a garbage movie. f**k all the pathetic homophobic Disney’s leaders,’ @lovely_ochid slammed.

And many said that, even with the claimed attempts to water down any sapphic overtones, they were not even successful.

‘Not only is it weird as hell to do all that to avoid the gay, but like… they totally failed at it, too lmao’ @aut0mahtic shared.

On the flip side, Disney boss Bob Iger has also had to previously respond to accusations of ‘wokeness’ after the release of 2022’s Strange World, a Disney animation with an out-gay lead.

In a shareholders’ meeting, he confirmed the company was not trying to ‘advance any kind of agenda’.

‘Our job is to entertain first and foremost, and by telling great stories, we continue to have a positive impact on the world and inspire future generations, just as we’ve done for over 100 years.

‘Disney has always been and will continue to be a source of hope, joy and optimism for people of all ages. We’re committed to telling stories that reflect the world around us and using those stories to entertain people from all walks of life,’ the CEO added, per Hollywood Reporter.

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