BURBANK — LGBT advocates are applauding Disney’s remake of Beauty and the Beast, featuring an openly gay version of LeFou, as a leap forward for gay characters no one would ever want to identify with.
“As a young closeted man, I never saw myself represented up on screen,” said GLAAD spokesperson Brent Masterson. “But now young isolated children can watch a role model like LeFou, and realize that one day they too could be a fat bumbling sidekick who also happens to be openly gay.”
Masterson then pointed to a publicity still of LeFou splitting his pantaloons, before adding, “This is what progress looks like.”
The decision to reboot the wholly charmless and unlikeable character of Lefou, played by comedian Josh Gad, was not arrived at lightly. “The filmmakers wanted to update a character to offer queer representation,” explained Walt Disney CEO Robert A. Iger. “I agreed, provided the LGBT character was not ‘too beloved’.”
“First they suggested Belle herself, but I said ‘Too beloved’. Then they suggested the candlestick Lumière, but he was still too beloved. Eventually they suggested LeFou, and I said ‘Fine’.”
“I guess not all heroes wear capes,” added Iger, pointing to himself.
The decision to portray the doltish henchman as openly gay has also met with its share of controversy. “I didn’t want my kids being exposed to any homosexual characters in their movies,” added Birch Harlowe, president of the christian conservative media group Family Focus on Fiction. “But then I saw that the gay character was this pathetic little gremlin who carries an unrequited love for a heterosexual sociopath. Also, LeFou’s gay love drives him to help Gaston’s attempt to murder the movie’s hero. Now that’s good messaging.”
Advocates are hopeful that Disney will continue their trend of repellent LGBT characters by having one of the Lion King reboot’s hyenas identify as pansexual.
