Alabama drive-in bars Disney film
LOS ANGELES — A drive-in movie theater in rural northeastern Alabama said that it would not show Disney’s new version of Beauty and the Beast because it has a gay character. Carol Laney, who owns the theater with her husband, cited their religious beliefs as why they opposed the film.
“I have family members that are homosexuals. I have a relationship with them. I love them. It does not mean I’m a bigot,” she said in an interview. “I’m not judging them when I tell you that God’s word says this, that’s not me. That’s God’s word.”
Laney said they had only seen a trailer and an article that mentioned the gay character. The reimagined Beauty and the Beast, directed by Bill
Condon, will not be distributed until March 17. But Condon told a magazine last week that a character,
LeFou, played by Josh Gad, has “a nice, exclusively gay moment” at the end of the film.
Gad plays the character as a slightly effeminate man with a crush on the villain Gaston. The moment Condon appeared to reference comes in the final scene, when (spoiler alert) LeFou is shown — for about 3 seconds — dancing with another fellow.
The Henagar Drive-In Facebook page was flooded with more than 1,300 comments Friday. The majority of commenters condemned the theater for homophobia and hypocrisy. As Chris Martinetti wrote, “A drive-in theater is so perfectly apt for your prehistoric ideologies.”