![](\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Gay_Disney_Beauty_and_the_Beast_810_500_55_s_c1.jpg\")
<\/a>LeFou (Josh Gad), left, and Gaston (Luke Evans) in Beauty and the Beast.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n
Lisa Bourne
\nlifesitenews.com<\/p>\n
March 2, 2017 (LifeSiteNews<\/a>) \u2013 Disney’s forthcoming\u00a0Beauty and the Beast<\/em> cinematic\u00a0remake will feature a gay subplot, according to the film\u2019s director, thought to be a first in the film company\u2019s history.<\/p>\n Belle\u2019s suitor Gaston, played by actor Luke Evans, has a male admirer via the new characterization of his manservant LeFou (Josh Gad).<\/p>\n “LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston,” director Bill Condon said.<\/p>\n Condon explained in an interview with British gay lifestyle publication Attitude Magazine<\/em> how the LeFou character will be used in the movie to highlight homosexuality.<\/p>\n “He’s confused about what he wants,\u201d he said.\u00a0“It’s somebody who’s just realizing that he has these feelings. And Josh makes something really subtle and delicious out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n “And that’s what has its payoff at the end, which I don’t want to give away,\u201d Condon continued. \u201cBut it is a nice, exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie.”<\/p>\n A recently released Beauty and the Beast<\/em> trailer clip<\/a> shows LeFou\u00a0singing the film\u2019s \u201cGaston\u201d song while dancing in campy fashion as he lavishes extravagant praise upon Gaston. The latter appears to like the attention.<\/p>\n Condon said this rendition of LeFou is part of a ‘watershed moment’ for Disney, the Daily Mail reports.<\/p>\n \u201cThe studio is sending out a message that this is normal and natural \u2013 and this is a message that will be heard in every country of the world, even countries where it’s still socially unacceptable or even illegal to be gay,\u201d Condon stated.<\/p>\n The Gaston-LeFou gay storyline will play beneath the main story centered on Belle, played by Emma Watson, and her relationship with the Beast (Dan Stevens).<\/p>\n News of the first official Disney character exploration of homosexuality on film comes just after several same-sex kisses were shown in the latest episode of the company\u2019s animated Star vs. the Forces of Evil <\/em>program. The show, which targets children and adolescents, airs on Disney XD, the company\u2019s digital cable and satellite television channel.<\/p>\n This week, the program included a scene at a boy band concert that had several concertgoers, including gay and lesbian couples, kissing while the band sings \u201cBest Friends.\u201d<\/p>\n Though some viewed the same-sex representations as too subtle, according to the UK media outlet\u2019s report, many took to Twitter to applaud Disney\u2019s first-ever gay kissing scene in the children\u2019s cartoon.<\/p>\n While Disney is achieving some \u201cfirsts\u201d with its gay movie character and same-sex on-screen cartoon kisses, its television network has been portraying same-sex relationships for years.<\/p>\n Disney Channel debuted a lesbian couple on its Good Luck Charlie<\/em> in 2014, and Disney confirmed last year that two characters on its animated Gravity Falls<\/em>, which began on Disney channel before moving to Disney XD, are a gay couple.<\/p>\n LGBT activists have pressured Disney to feature more openly gay relationships in its programming, feeding conjecture over past, current and future Disney characters being gay.<\/p>\n A May 2016 Cosmopolitan <\/em>article cast a dozen Disney characters over the years as likely gay.<\/p>\n These included Flora,\u00a0Fauna, and Merryweather from Sleeping Beauty<\/em>, Ursula and \u00a0Sebastian the crab in The Little Mermaid<\/em>; Cogsworth from Beauty and the Beast<\/em>; Nakoma from Pocahontas<\/em>, Beauty and the Beast\u2019s<\/em> Gaston; the Genie and Iago in Aladdin<\/em>; Winnie the Pooh\u2019s<\/em> Rabbit; Scar from The Lion King<\/em>, Li Shang\u00a0in Mulan<\/em>; and Alice from Alice in Wonderland<\/em>.<\/p>\n The directors of last year\u2019s Moana <\/em>from Disney said it was entirely possible for Disney to feature an LGBT princess.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u00a0seems like the possibilities are pretty open at this point,\u201d Ron Clements told Huffington Post in November.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would be driven by a director or a directorial team that really wanted to push that and if (Disney Animation\u2019s chief creative officer) John Lasseter liked the idea,\u201d John Musker added.<\/p>\n Speculation and projection of gay<\/a> and transgender characters has also encompassed last year\u2019s Zootopia<\/em>, Finding Dory<\/a><\/em>, and 2013\u2019s Frozen<\/em>.<\/p>\n During the spring of 2016, the hashtag #GiveElsaAGirlfriend was trending as part of a campaign<\/a> for Disney to have the film\u2019s lead, Elsa, come out as a lesbian in the sequel scheduled for 2018.<\/p>\n Other fans of Frozen <\/em>\u2013 the highest grossing animated film of all time \u2014 were concerned about the damage such a move would do to countless young children and launched a petition<\/a> urging Disney to resist liberal pressure.<\/p>\n