Disney won’t cut ‘Beauty And The Beast’ gay moment, even after requests to do so in Malaysia

March 16, 2017

Even after requests from the Film Censorship Board in Malaysia to cut the gay moment in Beauty And The Beast, Disney has opted to keep the moment.

Instead, Disney has chosen to move the movie’s release date to March 30, which, according to Billboard, gives the country’s censorship board more time to decide whether or not they will want to release the film at all.

In further detail, AOL explains how Malaysia’s government has laws against homosexuality and without the change, the movie would have a P13 rating. Billboard says that in the country, LGBT characters can only be depicted onscreen “as long as they show ‘repentance.’”

Earlier in the month, the Russian Culture Ministry banned the new, live action Beauty And The Beast movie from children under the age of 16, after a petition by ultraconservative lawmaker Vitaly Milono that said the movie disseminates “overt and shameless propaganda of sin and sexual perversion under the guise of a fairy tale.”

AOL says that, according to reports, the moment causing the uproar is a man dancing with another man at a ball, and director Bill Condon revealed to Attitude that Gaston's sidekick LeFou has romantic feelings for the movie's villain.

“LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston,” Condon said. “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.”