Despite taking fire on social media for comments accusing Disney’s ‘Frozen’ of being homosexual propaganda, Brazil’s Human Rights Minister Damares Alves just won’t let it go in the fight over gender identity.
Alves offered her controversial crossover fan theory about the Disney film princesses Elsa and Sleeping Beauty in a video which was recorded last year, but went viral on social media Saturday.
"You know why she only ends up alone in an ice castle, because she is a lesbian!” Alves explained, warning that the animated heroine would return to awaken Sleeping Beauty with a “lesbian kiss.”
She went on to lament how while she had once “dreamed about [her] prince,” today’s Disney films are teaching young girls to wait for princess charming.
Her concern may not be pure speculation: there have been rumors and discussion among the film’s production team about Queen Elsa “coming out” in the yet-unreleased 2019 sequel.
Nonetheless, mocking responses to the minister's video across social media were extensive. Some ironically commented that Alves had given a “spoiler” of the real ending of Frozen 2, while others said that Disney producers should take note of her “suggestion.”
There were also commenters who saw her statement in a much more serious light, arguing her words were stimulating hatred, some calling her “unbalanced” and “deranged.”
Responding to the flak on Instagram, Alves expressed surprise her comments were seen as controversial, arguing that her goal is to protect children from exposure to sexualized messaging.
“My criticism is known to all, I am criticizing the attempted interference of gender ideologists in our children’s identities,” adding that children need play with toys and study rather than thinking about gender and sexuality.
Critics have linked her comments to the attitudes of Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro toward the LGBT community. In March, during Brazil’s annual Carnival, Bolsonaro tweeted a video a man urinating on another man commenting that “This is what many street Carnival groups have become,” which was widely interpreted to be a homophobic dig.
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