Not all members of the LGBT community are applauding Disney's live action remake of "Beauty and the Beast."
Joseph R. Murray II, a lawyer from Mississippi and a political pundit who identifies as a homosexual, says Walt Disney has gone "off course" in its assumed objective of entertaining children.
In a column published last week in the Orlando Sentinel, Murray said children should not have been exposed to the "gay" content of "Beauty and the Beast" and other recent Disney productions since it "steals their innocence."
"Somewhere along the line, Disney went off course," he wrote. "No longer did it see itself as a defender of children's innocence. Instead, it saw itself as a conduit to social change."
"Disney has worked to infuse its brand with political activism, and the LGBT left lobby has always been a primary benefactor," noted Murray, who is administrator for LGBTrump, a Facebook community for LGBT people supportive of President Donald Trump.
"Beauty and the Beast" director Bill Condon earlier revealed that the movie has a "gay moment."
"LeFou [one character in the movie] is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston," he told Attitude magazine last month.
Murray said television is already saturated with adult content like sex, drugs, and violence. As a result, "adults have long lost their innocence."
However, he pointed out that today's adults lost their innocence when they grew out of adolescence. With TV shows now filled with adult content, "do we really want our kids to lose [their innocence] in adolescence?" he asked.
He cited a recent episode of "Star vs. the Forces of Evil," an animated TV series also produced by Disney, which includes a scene where cartoon characters at a boy band concert kiss their partners, including those of the same sex.
Murray understands that homosexual advocates want to convey messages to the public portraying the changing cultural scene in America. But children are too young to be subjected to these messages, he said.
"[W]hy do we have to expose our kids to such mature themes? Do they not have plenty of time to grow up?" Murray asked. "Or maybe the point is to make them grow up too soon, and that is where I part ways with my community."
