An upcoming Pixar animated television series will no longer include a transgender teenager after Disney removed dialogue that referenced the character’s gender identity.
Win or Lose, which will begin on Disney+ in February, follows different members of a young mixed gender softball team, the Pickles, in the lead up to their championship game. Voices in the show include comedian Will Forte as the team’s coach, Dan.
The Hollywood Reporter was the first to reveal that several lines of dialogue that referenced the transgender character’s identity had been removed. In a statement, Disney confirmed the change, saying: “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.”
A source close to the show told the Hollywood Reporter the studio decided months ago to change the gender identity of the character, whose name has yet to be revealed.
Chanel Stewart, the 18-year-old transgender actor who voices the character, said she was “very disheartened” by Disney’s decision.
“From the moment I got the script, I was excited to share my journey to help empower other trans youth. I knew this would be a very important conversation. Trans stories matter, and they deserve to be heard,” she told Deadline.
She confirmed Disney had told her that her character is still “heavily” in the show, but she “would now be a cis girl, a straight cis girl”.
Stewart applied for the role in 2020 after seeing a social media post about Pixar’s search for a transgender girl to voice a transgender teenager for the series. “The thought of authentically portraying a transgender teenage girl made me really happy,” she told Deadline. “I wanted to make this for transgender kids like me.”
Her mother, Keisha, told Deadline: “There may be some parents out there who are not ready to have that conversation, but this is the world that we live in and everyone should be represented. Everyone deserves to be recognised. And it felt like it was just another setback for the LGBTQ community, because it’s very hard on transgender teenagers … transgender people, period.”
Disney declined to comment further on the matter.
Disney has come under fire before for its handling of LGBTQ+ characters, the presence of whom can affect their ability to sell films and TV in countries that ban or censor LGBTQ+ content.
The company’s handling of Florida’s “don’t say gay” bill also resulted in its ties to the US political establishment and the lack of LGBTQ+ representation in its films coming under scrutiny.
In 2022, the Pixar film Lightyear sparked controversy for including two women briefly kissing, while Disney Animation’s Strange World featured an openly gay lead character but flopped at the box office. Disney also cut a lesbian kiss from a Star Wars film in order to get a lower age rating in Singapore.
