Is Disney Finally Progressing Past the Token Queer?
With the arrival of a prominent bisexual character on a Disney Channel animated series and a powerful Pixar short about a gay man coming out to his parents on Disney+, Disney finally shows signs that they might be willing to embrace sexual inclusivity after nearly a century of exclusion.
Despite enormous and undeniable progress with regard to LGBTQ visibility and equality over the past two decades, significant issues remain with respect to the quantity and quality of portrayals of sexual and gender minorities in film and on television. Although there are several high quality and high profile exceptions, media portrayals of LGBTQ people still tend to be few and far between and those that do exist are often mired in stereotypes and are little more than props.
Lack of LGBTQ representation harms members of our community in two key ways. First, it indirectly sends a slew of negative messages including: “you don’t exist in our eyes,” “your stories are not worth telling,” and “your lifestyle remains too controversial and taboo for us to depict in mainstream entertainment.” Second, it deprives LGBTQ people of having people to identify with. Most (but certainly not all) LGBTQ people are raised in predominantly heterosexual and cisgender environments where they receive little, if any, validation, empathy, or information about their…
