Not everyone is excited about LeFou's "exclusively gay moment in a Disney moment."
The Henagar Drive-In Theatre in Henagar, Alabama announced it won't screen the upcoming Beauty and the Beast because it has a gay character.
The schedule occurred after director Bill Condon revealed that Josh Gad's character LeFou, the comical sidekick to antagonist Gaston (Luke Evans), will be Disney's first-ever LGBTQ character, in dedication to the original film's late lyricist Howard Ashman. The Hollywood Reporter's review of the film warned, "Rabid red-state homophobes may be incandescent with fury to see how things end up for him in the finale."
Read more: 'Beauty and the Beast': Josh Gad Plays Disney's First-Ever Gay Character
The Alabama theater's schedule shift was decided by the business' new owners who took over in December. "When companies continually force their views on us we need to take a stand. We all make choices and I am making mine," the business said in a statement on Facebook. "If we can not take our 11 year old grand daughter and 8 year old grandson to see a movie we have no business watching it. If I can't sit through a movie with God or Jesus sitting by me then we have no business showing it.
"I know there will be some that do not agree with this decision. That's fine," reads the statement. "We are first and foremost Christians. We will not compromise on what the Bible teaches. We will continue to show family oriented films so you can feel free to come watch wholesome movies without worrying about sex, nudity, homosexuality and foul language."
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Disney for comment.
Read more: 'Beauty and the Beast': Film Review
Condon explained LeFou's subplot alteration to Attitude: "LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston. ... He's confused about what he wants. It's somebody who's just realizing that he has these feelings. And Josh makes something really subtle and delicious out of it. And that's what has its payoff at the end, which I don't want to give away. But it is a nice, exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie." Gad tweeted that he is "beyond proud" to lead the major Disney benchmark.
Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Kevin Kline, Emma Thompson, Ian McKellen, Ewan McGregor, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Audra McDonald and Stanley Tucci are also featured in Beauty and the Beast, which hits theaters March 17.
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