It was announced last week that Disney’s new live action Beauty and the Beast film would feature an “exclusively gay moment” with director Bill Condon telling that manservant LeFou explores his feelings for Gaston.
While fans around the world are praising Disney for its first foray into representing gay characters on screen, Russian officials aren’t too pleased, according to the .
Anti-LGBT MP Vitaly Milonov has urged the country’s culture minister to hold a screening of the film and “take measures to totally ban” it if he found “elements of propaganda of homosexuality”, describing it as “shameless propaganda of sin”.
Culture minister Vladimir Medinsky says he will make a decision as soon as he can see the cryptic “gay moment” for himself.
“As soon as we get a copy of the film with relevant paperwork for distribution, we will consider it according to the law,” Mr Medinsky has said.
Russia's parliament unanimously passed a 'gay propaganda' law in 2013 that bans the 'promotion of non-traditional sexual relations' to minors'.
Homophobes worldwide have been rushing to condemn the film they haven’t yet seen, outraged by the possibility of gay content in a Disney film.
A drive-in cinema in Alabama has dropped planned screenings of Beauty and the Beast, with owner Lanita Price writing on Facebook: “If I can’t sit through a movie with God or Jesus sitting by me then we have no business showing it.”
