Same-sex kiss cut from Lightyear reportedly restored after Disney's 'Don't Say Gay' backlash

After Pixar slammed parent company Disney for allegedly censoring gay content, a same-sex kiss has reportedly been restored to the studio's Buzz Lightyear movie.

According to Variety, Lightyear, the upcoming Toy Story spinoff film from Disney and Pixar, will feature a female character in a relationship with another woman. The report says a kiss between the characters had been cut out of the film but was restored last week amid backlash over Disney's response to Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill.

Some of that backlash came from inside Pixar itself. In response to Disney CEO Bob Chapek defending his initial decision not to criticize the Florida bill, a group of Pixar's LGBTQIA+ employees slammed the company in a public letter last week, alleging Disney removes same-sex content from Pixar films.

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"We at Pixar have personally witnessed beautiful stories, full of diverse characters, come back from Disney corporate reviews shaved down to crumbs of what they once were," the letter said. "Nearly every moment of overtly gay affection is cut at Disney's behest, regardless of when there is protest from both the creative teams and executive leadership at Pixar."

There have only been minor examples of LGBTQ representation in Pixar's animated movies so far, including a female character in 2020's Onward who mentions having a girlfriend, and the studio also released a short film, "Out," about a gay man.

But Variety reports Pixar's efforts to add greater LGBTQ representation is "consistently thwarted," though the report says this is often a case of Pixar censoring itself due to a belief Disney wouldn't approve the content.

Pixar's letter, though, objected to Chapek's suggestion that Disney can help fight anti-LGBTQ legislation through its films. The employees said, "Even if creating LGBTQIA+ content was the answer to fixing the discriminatory legislation in the world, we are being barred from creating it."

Lightyear is set to hit theaters in June.