Cut that Out, Disney

Well, with less than a week to go there really is no avoiding the fact that we – as a country – have lurched to the right. That old cultural pendulum is swinging back to appease those people mad they have to live next to people of color and watch two men kiss on TV. Just wonderful. One of the first sure signs that representation of LGBTQ+ people will not be spared in this purge of so-called DEI/woke anything is Pixar’s decision to cut the trans storyline in its new upcoming animated series “Win or Lose.”

The show, about a co-ed middle school softball team, follows them as they get ready for a championship game. One of the team members was a transgender girl, voiced by transgender actress Chanel Stewart. The series is set to debut in February on Disney+. But last month, Disney announced the trans storyline had been cut entirely from the show. Stewart’s character will now be portrayed as cisgender after Disney eliminated “a few lines of dialogue” from an episode that referenced the character’s gender identity.

In announcing the change, Disney said: “When it comes to animated content for a younger audience, we recognize that many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline.”

*Endless and endlessly exhausted sigh*

Once again, we are forced to accept another mind-boggling win for bigotry. Also, I love how the entire trans storyline only consisted of “a few lines of dialogue” yet apparently those few lines were so powerful, scary and inappropriate that younger audiences must be shielded from them at all costs. Trans people exist, and their mere existence in this world is not dangerous for children to know.

I’m just so tired of the loudest and proudly hatefulest getting their way. And, in case you’re thinking, “Well – that’s just trans people’s problems,” don’t think for a second that those same people screaming about trans people aren’t also still salty about having to watch commercials with gay couples and shows with “DEI” casts.

Literally 10 years ago - A WHOLE-ASS DECADE AGO – Time magazine ran a cover story about the “Transgender Tipping Point” as America’s new civil rights frontier. Yet here we are facing down hundreds of anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ laws being introduced across the country every damn year. There’s a whole damn state where you can’t say gay (like, fuck Florida forever).

It’s a reminder that progress isn’t always linear and it’s never safe and always hard fought. Sure, it might seem insignificant that a major entertainment company has decided it’s too risky (or, per their explanation, risque) to include a trans storyline in a show. But by removing “a few lines of dialogue" they make it easier for the hatemongers of the world to point and say - “See! See, they’re too evil for Disney. See! They’re too evil to exist!”

While I knew corporations and the oligarch class weren’t going to save or support us through this second Trump term, even I am shocked at the instant and obsequious capitulation in this moment. Elon, Mark, all of them are full MAGA now. Corporations continue to not be our friends. Billionaires will never be our friends. And every idiot who thinks That Orange Turd will somehow lower their grocery bills doesn’t deserve friends.

I fear we’re in for at least four years of this kind of bullshit. But instead of capitulating, instead of obeying in advance and hiding back in those closets, I say we all just get gayer. Like almost too gay to function. You can cut our few lines of dialogue, you can pretend we’re too scary to talk about. But we’re here, we’ve always been here, and we’ll never shut up about it.