But such positivity and inclusion at a time of raging culture wars makes Disney a prime target. The equivalent of Bambi in front of a hunting party. Why? Because the Magic Kingdom is making a real push for diversity—both by acknowledging its problematic past by adding warnings against some of their most beloved but racially stereotypical earlier films, and by including characters who represent (arguably) their biggest fan-base—the LGBT+ community.
Which has got The Right apoplectic.
In a scene from Baymax!, a spin-off series from the Disney movie Big Hero 6, Baymax goes into a grocery store to get sanitary products to help a teenage girl who’s having her first period. Baymax gets lots of personal recommendations from other shoppers in the aisle—one of whom is a trans man.
The scene in question was highlighted by conservative author and activist Christopher Rufo and it has since been viewed over six million times on Twitter. He has accused Disney of trying to “re-engineer the discourse around kids and sexuality, while equally right-wing commentator Michael Cernovich called it “dystopian.”
Rufo—who appears convinced Disney’s marketing plan is to make everyone gay and looks a bit like Syndrome from The Incredibles—wrote: “I’ve obtained leaked video from Disney’s upcoming show ‘Baymax’, which promotes the transgender flag, and the idea men can have periods to children as young as two years old.”
He makes it sound all very James Bond, as if someone slipped him a microfilm while passing in the park, when the “leaked” video was actually widely released by Disney’s marketing team.
A couple of things here. Men who happen to be trans can have periods. And two-year-olds whose vocabulary extends to “mama” or “dada” aren’t listening. They’re watching the cute robot thing.
There are lots of other examples from Disney’s recent catalog that have made the socially-repressed twitch as well as tweet. Last month it was American hero Buzz Lightyear having a snog with a bloke. And who can forget the famous lesbian scene in cartoon porno Finding Nemo (as the Baroness and Rufo might describe it)?
As a boy growing up with a secret (I was a girl—how could nobody see that?) the Magic Kingdom was always somewhere I could escape to.
I’d watch the TV show cross-legged on the carpet whenever it was on, singing along to the opening credits where Tinkerbell flies and swishes her wand. “When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are.” A place where dreams come true.
For years every night before I went to sleep, I’d say a little prayer in my head—wishing Tinkerbell would come and change me, so I could be normal.
This is why the likes of Disney and Marvel are so alluring to LGBT+ people. They create worlds where misfits triumph over initial hostility and suspicion. And unlike the Harry Potter universe—which J.K. Rowling has forever scorched with her toxic views on trans people—Disney understands this.
Nobody is born a homophobe, a transphobe, or a racist. It’s learned. And the fact Disney (which spoke against Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill that banned LGBT+ education in classrooms) is now reflecting the full breadth of the gay and trans family to a younger audience should be 100 percent applauded and encouraged.
Make no mistake. This is a battle between Good and Evil. A fight for young hearts and minds.
And despite what the Right might think, the good side will always be the ones who champion love and acceptance. Which is why we should dump the likes of Baroness Nicholson, Christopher Rufo and all the other doomsayers in a giant vat of green slime. And wear our Elsa and Cinderella dresses with Pride.
India Willoughby was the world’s first transgender television newsreader, and is a London-based broadcaster, writer and commentator. The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
