Homosexual Disney's long agenda
“Part of Your World” and “Poor Unfortunate Souls” from The Little Mermaid — that’s Ashman. “Beauty and the Beast” — that’s Ashman too. “Friend Like Me” from Aladdin — yup, Ashman.
Ashman, along with Disney composer Alan Menken, co-wrote all the songs for The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, and wrote the lyrics for “Prince Ali,” “Arabian Nights,” and “Friend Like Me” for Aladdin.
It’s important to highlight Ashman’s personal life in the face of this boycott of the new Beauty and the Beast. It takes a special cultural ignorance to protest the adaptation because it features a gay character, even though the original movie wouldn’t be what it is without Ashman’s talent. Never mind the many other Disney characters who have been coded as or interpreted as gay characters over the years, or that “Gaston,” a number which appears in both Beauty and the Beast films, is essentially LeFou’s love letter to his muscle-daddy crush. (If you prefer The Lion Kingto Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, please keep in mind Elton John’s involvement in that soundtrack and film.)
New Beauty and Beast director Condon has spoken lovingly about Ashman, and pointed out that Ashman was integral in making Disney’s animated classic.
“It was his idea, not only to make [the original film] into a musical but also to make Beast one of the two central characters,” Condon told Vanity Fair. “Specifically for him, it was a metaphor for AIDS … He was cursed, and this curse had brought sorrow on all those people who loved him, and maybe there was a chance for a miracle — and a way for the curse to be lifted. It was a very concrete thing that he was doing.”
If you look at the standout songs in many of those animated musicals, they’re about living in new worlds (“Part of Your World”) and frustration with feeling odd and misunderstood (“Belle”) — an experience that many LGBTQ people share.
But Ashman didn’t get the miracle or magical ending.
Ashman died of AIDS complications shortly after the first screening of Beauty and the Beast in 1991. Before his death, he had written songs for 1992’s Aladdin.(Disney replaced some of those songs with ones from Tim Rice.)
And while Condon hasn’t directly confirmed that making LeFou gay is an homage to Ashman, it would be a small token of appreciation to a man who brought much joy to this world by sharing his talents with us.
Read ahead if you would like spoilers on how gay LeFou actually is.
