Homophobia in Animation: Queer-Coded Disney Characters
Disney has almost no outwardly queer characters, and the queer-coded characters it does have are almost always villains.
Let's be honest: Disney hasn't given us a lot to work with in terms of LGBTQ+ representation.
Troublingly, many of the Disney characters that display queer characteristics are also portrayed as villains. While this isn't a positive thing overall, many queer folks have combed through Disney movies, triumphantly reclaiming the franchise's many glittering, flamboyant, queer-coded characters.
In that spirit, here's a list of all the (potentially) LGBTQ+ icons ever featured in Disney films (with a few Pixar Animations, because who really understands the difference?) Let's hope that Disney (and other animation studios) learn from their past mistakes and create complex characters who display different facets of queerness and gender, not just stereotypical and harmful versions of them. Until that day... we'll take what we can get?
1. Le Fou — Beauty and the Beast
When the director of the 2017 live-action Beauty and the Beast remake announced that the character Le Fou would be portrayed as gay, an uproar ensued. (It was even boycotted in one Alabama drive-in). Though many people looked forward to the moment, it turned out to be an incredibly brief sequence wherein Gaston's loyal sidekick dances with a man in the final ball scene. That's all we were given from Disney's first openly gay character, sadly.
Still, even in the original film, Le Fou appears to have a kind of slavishly devotional love for Gaston, and in hindsight he was heavily queer-coded.
▲2. Elsa — Frozen
#GiveElsaaGirlfriend has been a common rallying cry for fans who want to see Frozen's all-powerful ice queen find blissful queer love. Some have also advocated for her to come out as openly asexual, which would be even better. A Frozen II songwriter has confirmed that Elsa won't have a love interest in the sequel, but still, we all can't help but wish that Disney would use its huge platform to put forth some positive queer representation, which would be all the more powerful through a character as beloved as Elsa.
▲3. Oaken—Frozen
Though Elsa may not be explicitly queer, Frozen minor character Oaken is seen introducing his family—which consists of four kids and an adult man, and for better or for worse, this is one of Disney's most transparent depictions of queerness.
▲4. Ursula — The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid's iconic villain was inspired by Divine, a drag queen and LGBTQ+ pioneer. Ursula the Sea Witch resembles Divine in both character and appearance—they share the same buxom shape and expressive eye makeup. Unfortunately, the real Divine (whose real name was Glenn Milstead) passed away before the movie's release, but according to documentarian Jeffrey Schwartz, had he known about Ursula, "He would have wanted to play the part himself."
▲5. Ja'far — Aladdin
Yet another queer-coded Disney villain, Ja'far is stereotypically sophisticated, sarcastic, and well-groomed. Elegant and effeminate, he's one definition of a problematic fave.
▲6. Scar — The Lion King
Like Ursula and Ja'far, Scar is the villain of his franchise—and with his smooth, sarcastic drawl, he certainly sounds gay enough. More pointedly, Scar is a social outcast who is fighting for people outside of mainstream society (his hyenas, who inhabit the "shadowy place.") Also, according to Intomore.com, "Scar presents a cool challenge to performed masculinity," as well as a "fabulous black gay man." While this doesn't excuse his villainy, it does show that there is a great deal of untapped potential in creating complex queer characters in Disney films. The live-action remake chose not to portray Scar as queer, which was probably the safer but ultimately less brave option.
▲6. Baloo — The Jungle Book
Ah, at last, a non-villainous queer-coded character. The Jungle Book's dancing bear is relentlessly fabulous from the moment he begins lauding life's "bear necessities" while shaking his assets in a grass skirt.
▲8. Timon and Pumba — The Lion King
Like Baloo, Timon and Pumba take a young, lost hero under their wings, showing him kindness and love outside of mainstream society. But can we talk about the fact that Timon and Pumba are not only in a queer, committed, healthy relationship, but that they also adopt a baby lion cub together? (Of course, the fact that Timon was played by openly gay actor Billy Eichner didn't hurt, but these characters' love story writes itself).
▲9. Cogsworth and Lumiere — Beauty and the Beast
Cogsworth and Lumiere are so refined, elegant, and classy that it's hard not to associate them with gay male stereotypes; it's not hard to imagine them manning an inanimate-object remake of Queer Eye.
▲10. Terkina — Tarzan
Finally, a rare lesbian character. Terkina is played by out-and-proud Rosie O'Donnell, and she protests a great deal when she has to wear a dress and makeup for a ruse; in retrospect, she's a true gay icon.
▲12. Governor Ratcliffe — Pocahontas
Governor Ratcliffe is obsessed with glitter and his song "Mine, Mine, Mine" contains a lot of references to...boys. Enough said.
▲13. Kronk — Emperor's New Groove
Kronk loves his diva queen, Yzma, as much as any modern gay loves their chosen adoptive pop star mom. Plus, Kronk loves cooking (his Spinach puffs are extremely important to him), fashion, and dancing, and along with the Emperor Kuzco, he seems like a classically queer-coded fellow.
▲14. Dory — Nemo
This is a stretch, but of course, Dory is played by the first lesbian ever to exist on TV, Ellen Degeneres, and plus she has no romantic tension with Nemo's dad. So she must be gay, right?
▲15. Captain Hook — Peter Pan
Captain Hook lives on a ship with a bunch of other men. Hook and Smee? Definitely not just friends. Hook is, unfortunately, yet another evil-gay-villain type. This shouldn't even need to be said, but not all gay people want you or want to disrupt your heterosexual lifestyle, Mr. Disney Staff Writer who is most likely overcompensating for your suppressed feelings for Andrew in accounting.
▲16. Sebastian — The Little Mermaid
Like many gay men, Sebastian definitely has a lot of internalized misogyny (he's constantly critiquing Ariel), and he's also definitely queer.
The original, much-darker The Little Mermaid itself was actually probably a queer fairy tale. Hans Christian Anderson is believed to have written Ariel's silence (and feeling of walking on knives in the human world, a detail that Disney conveniently left out) as a metaphor for his own forced silence about his queerness.
▲17. Merida — Brave (Pixar Animation)
Could it be...another rare lesbian? Merida knows how to shoot a bow and arrow, goes to extremes to avoid marrying a nobleman, and hates girly clothes. While not an overtly gay character (we can dream), she still refuses to comply with gender roles and therefore is probably the best option for any baby lesbians looking for representation on the silver screen.
▲18. King Candy — Wreck-It-Ralph
One would think that Disney might've learned from its mistakes and would stop making flamboyant, queer-coded villains, but nope. Wreck-It-Ralph came out in 2018, and King Candy is a cruel, pink-wearing conflagration of damaging queer stereotypes. (He's even called a "nelly," an old offensive term for a gay man). While there's something nostalgic, fun, and subversive about combing through 1990s characters and celebrating their misguided, queer-coded traits, it's really not cool in a time when we have Tumblr, gay marriage, rainbow capitalism, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Pete Buttegieg.
▲19. Ken — Toy Story (Pixar Animation)
Just look at that kerchief tied around Ken's neck. That unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt. That glittering red suit.
▲20. Pleakley (Lilo and Stitch)
Pleakley is an alien who descends to earth and identifies as male, but he loves wearing women's clothes and acts like he's married to Jamba for the whole series. A drag queen? Absolutely. Equating gay people with aliens? A problem, for sure, but we take what we can get in this economy.
▲21. Li Shang — Mulan
Even rarer than a lesbian...could it be...a real bisexual? Mulan's Li Shang gives Mulan the same puppy dog eyes when she's dressed as a male and a female, and many bisexuals, pansexuals and advocates were very disappointed when he was written out of the remake. Plus, he's played by gay actor BD Wong. Get your sh*t together, remakers, and hire a single person who's ever been online.
▲22. Yao — Mulan
A lot of Mulan's characters could be read as queer-coded, including the entire boy-gang who seem to really, really love impressing each other and proving that they're straight. Yao takes particular joy in this, as well as his entirely non-homoerotic brotherly love.
▲23. Seven Dwarfs — Snow White
Seven men who all live in the same house? Whose hats are the color of the rainbow? Really? Some have even argued that they can be read as anti-ableist, anti-heterosexual icons.
▲24. Syndrome — The Incredibles (Pixar Animation)
Disney is particularly bad at writing gay characters, but they're not the only franchise that fails miserably at this task. (How hard is it, really, to write a character who loves someone who isn't the opposite gender?). But plenty of other franchises have made the same mistakes as Disney. For example, there's Pixar's Syndrome, the villain in The Incredibles who obsessively wears a cape and is very obviously obsessed with Mr. Incredible, until his advances are rejected and he goes haywire in a classic example of the age-old evil-gay plot.
▲25. Lord Farquaad — Shrek
Shrek is a queer film, simply put. Its particular brand of satire and breaking-the-fourth-wall is deeply queered and almost prescient in the way it would predict the type of anti-hetero, transhumanist discourse that would come to run so much of social media.
Lord Marximus Farquaad is possibly queer-coded, if only because he speaks in the all-too-stereotypical sassy gay villain voice. Then again, all the woodland creatures sing a song with the refrain, "Let your freak flag fly," a Lady Gaga B-side if there ever was one.
▲26. Squidward — Spongebob Squarepants
Spongebob is deeply queer overall, and Sandy is a lesbian if there ever was one… but nobody's more stereotypically closeted or queer than Squidward, who loves his bow tie and phallically shaped musical instrument. In general, everyone in Bikini Bottom seems to have drunk the gay juice.
▲27. Him — Powerpuff Girls
Y.I.K.E.S. No wonder why we're all so messed up—some of the things that this devil character does are extraordinarily creepy. And the fact that he's so obviously portrayed as a gay man doesn't help. Those boots? Beyond kinky.
Then again, if your heaven doesn't let gay people in or allow boots like these, I'd rather be in hell.
▲