In the last few years of his life, my father wrote a column for the Deseret News that focused on political issues. I remember sitting with him as he read through all the online comments to his pieces, many of which would ignore the content of what he’d written and instead beat up on him for things he had done when he was serving as a U.S. senator. I asked him if he was bothered by the nasty things people were saying about him.
“No,” he answered. “I’m bothered by the fact that none of these people making these comments seem to have actually read my articles.”
I got a sense of how he felt as I reviewed the comments and emails I received on my last column about the live-action “Beauty and the Beast” movie and its inclusion of a gay character. Many are quite upset that I didn’t use my column to elaborate on the evils of homosexuality, and many others have been quick to consign me to eternal damnation for my complicity in advancing Satan’s agenda.
When I read emails like these, I feel as if the outrage is directed at some other column that bears no resemblance whatsoever to the one I wrote last week.
Let me see if I can be clearer the second time around.
My previous column focused on the character of LeFou, whose name translates literally as “the fool.” Controversy has swirled around the fact that the actor and director have announced that LeFou is gay, marking the first time that Disney has included a gay character in one of its family films. What’s lost in that discussion is the fact that LeFou is arguably the most repellent character in the movie. Far from being a vehicle for “normalizing” homosexuality, LeFou is the butt of every joke and an accomplice to a would-be murderer. Children are therefore far more likely to be disgusted with LeFou than to idolize him.
There’s also a legitimate question as to whether or not children who see the movie will recognize that LeFou is gay. By all accounts, his sexuality is never discussed or acted upon with the exception of a single shot in the final scene where he can briefly be seen dancing with another man. Call me a libertine if you must, but I sincerely doubt that impressionable youngsters are going to interpret such a moment in any sexual context and, given LeFou’s overall repugnance, there’s no reason to believe they will have a more positive or accepting view of homosexuality than they had before they watched the movie. If anything, they will interpret the moral of the story to be that gay people are idiots and buffoons.
Please note that nowhere in this column or the previous one do I attempt to either justify or condemn homosexuality. People are surely free to debate the merits of that issue as much as they like, but they are mistaken if they think that discussion is anything but tangential to the point I am making, and they are way out of bounds when they pass judgment on my immortal soul. Like my father, I’m not bothered by the insults as much as I’m bothered by the fact that most of them have nothing to do with my actual article.
Jim Bennett is a recovering actor, theater producer and politico, and he writes about pop culture and politics at his blog, stallioncornell.com.