The parents’ lobbying group One Million Moms (which has far less than one million members) objects to two brief scenes in Toy Story 4, and are urging a boycott.  The movie has made 118 million dollars in the US alone, so most people are evidently ignoring the hate group’s calls for a boycott.

There is a brief scene in Disney’s Toy Story 4 where Bonnie, Woody’s new child, is being taken to kindergarten. Another child is dropped off by two women, and later picked up by them after school. Both women treat the child with affection.

Since only mothers hug children, One Million Moms has concluded that these two must be a lesbian couple. Distractify said “In a scene where Bonnie is being dropped off at school, you can see two moms in the background dropping off their little one. When pickup happens in the afternoon, you can see the two moms again greeting their child. It’s a subtle, minor moment, but people were touched nonetheless.”

One Million Moms declared that these women were obviously a LGBTQ couple, calling it “ a noticeably small scene with the sole purpose of attempting to normalize this lifestyle.”

Several Disney fans have objected to both this interpretation and the boycott, pointing out that “ the scene is so quick that many viewers don’t even notice it the first time around.”

One Million Moms is registered as a non-profit organization whose purpose is lobbying legislators in Washington. They are an offshoot of the American Family Association, who provides all their funding. The AFA has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified as a hate group, since nearly all of their activities appear to be centered on the persecution of the LGTBQ community.

Keeping Things in Perspective

This time of year, more people go to the movies for the air conditioning than for subtle normalizations of minor background characters.

Once upon a time, children’s entertainment did not mention the existence of LGBTQ people, lest being aware of homosexuality “lead children astray.” When I was in grade school, one of my classmates asked if Jane Addams had married and if so to whom. My teacher explained that she had been too busy with her charity work to have time for a husband or children. It wasn’t until decades later that I learned the Nobel Peace Prize winner was probably lesbian. Many Star Trek fans believe Edith Keeler in The City on the Edge of Forever was based on Jane Addams.

In 2019 CE, most moviegoers are not offended by the possibility that a pair of minor background characters might be LGBTQ nor frightened that their children might become aware that some families have two mothers. In fact, some moviegoers consider it past time that LGBTQ people have representation in the movies.

Apparently, of the supposed “One Million Moms”, only 14,000 have signed the petition, and there’s no way of knowing how many of those are fake accounts. There is no apparent method in place for authenticating the electronic signatures. That puts them roughly 986,000 signatures short of the million.

What do you think? Does a brief scene with two minor characters determine whether or not you watch a movie? Does the voice of One Million Moms influence your opinion?

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