Disney mutes transgender storyline as LGBTQ themes flop at box office

Disney has axed a transgender story arc in the animated series Win or Lose, according to multiple media reports.

The transgender character will remain in the series, but the transgender theme will be muted, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The series follows each player on a coed softball team in middle school in the lead-up to the big game, providing unique points of view from each character.

“When it comes to animated content for a younger audience, we recognize that many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline,” said Disney in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter about the story edit.

But it’s more likely that Disney saw two recent box office flops with significant LGBTQ content as a warning that viewers were fed-up with the politically charged, sexual themes.

In 2022 and 2023, Disney engaged in a dust-up with Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis over laws passed by Florida’s conservative majority and approved by the governor prohibiting sexuality and gender instruction from kindergarten to grade 3 in the state. 

Then Disney released Lightyear, based on the Toy Story franchise, and Strange World, both of which included gay themes.  

Neither did well. 

“Multiple sources say that Disney leadership internally put a large part of the blame for Lightyear’s financial failure on a same-sex kiss in the film, which was briefly removed then reinstated after an internal staff uproar,” said a report by IGN.   

Strange World, for its part, lost a projected $100 million in its initial run, according to InsideTheMagic. 

“Dubbed by some as Disney’s ‘wokest’ film, it’s left a generally sour taste on the palates of most movie-goers,” concluded the website.  

The result was that Disney executives demanded this year’s release of Inside Out 2, an animated movie about a girl going through puberty, toned down “queer themes,” reported Forbes. 

Disney scored a big hit, with Inside Out 2 becoming the number one grossing movie in 2024, earning $1.7 billion in revenue so far.  

Still, Disney faces an internal struggle with employees working as LGBTQ activists rather than entertainers, even as management seems to have made a course correction.  

In a hidden camera interview, one of Disney’s creative marketing directors, Amit “Genie” Gurnani, who works as a drag queen, said he’d like to see more LGBTQ content in children’s videos made by the company and even have drag queens at Disney parks.  

He also denied that the current Disney CEO, Bob Iger, would tone down LGBTQ content.  

That follows complaints from LGBTQ employees at Disney who objected to the removal of gay content from Inside Out 2, according to IGN. 

The success of Inside Out 2 was a make-or-break opportunity for Disney’s Pixar animation studios after two gay-themed duds, IGN also reported. 

“It was seen by many employees as ‘a life-or-death situation’ for the studio,” as the company continued to lay off employees and cut costs. 

A similar crisis faces Hollywood, emphasized by the election of Donald Trump.  

“All of Hollywood is bracing for what could be a tumultuous four years under the Trump administration,” said the Hollywood Reporter. “President-elect Donald Trump, who won in a sweeping victory last month, has routinely criticized Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts.” 

Netflix’s Ted Sarandos is scheduled to meet with him at Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday, said the Hollywood magazine.

The Lion previously reported that big tech magnates are already lining up to court Trump.  

Maybe that effect will bleed over to Tinseltown, too.