In the new Disney version of “Beauty and the Beast,” set to be released in U.S. theaters on March 17, Gaston’s sidekick LeFou (Josh Gad), discovers he has homosexual feelings for Gaston (Luke Evans).
At the Los Angeles premiere, director Bill Condon told Entertainment Weekly, “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.”
It’s a small moment in the movie, and one that’s been embraced by the LGBTQ community, but now Christian leaders are calling for people to boycott the film.
On his Facebook page, Reverend Franklin Graham state, “Disney has the right to make their cartoons, it’s a free country. But as Christians we also have the right not to support their company. I hope Christians everywhere will say no to Disney.”
Christian Daily.com reports that Boyce College’s Biblical Studies professor Denny Burk wrote in a blog post he will not let the movie maker inject into his children’s minds the message that “sexual immorality is ‘normal and natural.’”
An Alabama cinema has already pulled its planned screening of the movie. The Henagar Drive-In Theater wrote in a Facebook Post, “When companies continually force their views on us we need to take a stand,” read the post. “If we cannot take our 11-year-old granddaughter and 8-year-old grandson to see a movie we have no business watching it. If I can’t sit through a movie with God or Jesus sitting by me then we have no business showing it. I know there will be some that do not agree with this decision. That’s fine … We will continue to show family oriented films so you can feel free to come watch wholesome movies without worrying about sex, nudity, homosexuality and foul language.”
