In Disney's non-Pixar animated movie Zootopia from 2016, the main character lives next door to a gay married antelope couple, but this isn't at all clear in the movie itself. Pixar's 2020 short film Out revolved around a gay man as its main character, a big step for the studio, though it was released on Disney+ and not shown in front of a feature film like other Pixar shorts often are. Similarly, 2019's Toy Story 4 showed a child being brought to school and picked up by what looked to be his two moms in a few quick shots. In 2016, Finding Dory briefly showed an apparent lesbian couple, but the filmmakers declined to confirm this. When the film was released in Russia, the word 'girlfriend' was changed to 'partner.'
One of the most overt examples was 2020's Onward, which featured a female police officer who refers to 'my girlfriend' - though said girlfriend is never shown. What other LGBTQ+ representation has there been in Disney films?īefore Lightyear, there had been very little significant LGBTQ+ representation in Disney animated films.
