LeFou

For a long time, LeFou's gayness was not portrayed openly. Nor his stereotypical gayish relationship with the maybe-gay best friend — Gaston. But in the recent live-action remake of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, LeFou sees the complete picture of his desires, aspirations, and sexual needs. Today's character of LeFou is best described in the words of director Bill Condon — "He on some days wants to be Gaston, and on some days wants to kiss Gaston."

And LeFou is just that: confused with his feelings. Yet his inner feeling is not. From the start to end — LeFou balances and marginalizes his subtle and delicious feelings, though not consciously. And in the end: it pays. Or maybe Not. Honestly, I do not want to give away what happens. Simply, not to take away the excitement of you watching yourself.

Was There Any Gay - and - Beast Scene?

Like the song in the film, the gay part in Beauty and the Beast is a tale as old as time. Everything depicted is synonyms to spiritual, pure, and for the most part, innocent. Though its live-action pictorial is quite different, the animated classic that, even after 25+ years of its release, continues to be one of Disney's most famous movies in the audience's eyes and follows the timeline through its depiction.

In the original, everything is magical and filmy. The male protagonist — the Beast — is a rightful prince and is cursed and replaced by an enchantress just hours after being born. The female protagonist — Belle, is a beautiful, confident, outspoken outcast. The worst Disney villain — Gaston, is a handsome, rich nobleman who seeks Belle. And the accident-prone sidekick of the main antagonist — LeFou is the slovenly, dimwitted braggart who goes to extreme lengths to serve his master. Well, it is what it is. Everything is magical. The dances of the triplets Bimbettes. The ballroom dance scene of the Beauty and the Beast, the expensive chandeliers of the ballroom — is all too magical to be ever true. In fact, it does not intend to be true or talk about the ongoing cultural and societal mores like the rights of the LGBTQ. In that world, everything is fanciful, take for instance — the blue and red depiction of the Beast. And that wishful story was the reason "Beauty and the Beast" received much attention from the users and critics. So much so that it was received to the Golden Globe for the Best Animated Feature film of 1991.

However, when the audience received the news of "Beauty and the Beast in live-action" from Disney, they did not want it to portray that wishful storyline.

Instead, it demanded something of today, or at least of the real world. And Disney affirmative messages pretty much cleared that it would live up to the audience's expectations. But Disney portraying the "first-ever gay character" and "exclusively gay moment" did not captivate the audience. In fact, many disliked the new depictions of the original characters.

The hero — Beast, the Beauty — Belle, the antagonist — Gaston, the secondary antagonist — LeFou, were still the same. Aside from few minute details, their characters remained pretty much the same as the original classic and the book. And that minute details were about focusing on every character rather than focusing only on the "Prince unCharming" and the "Princess-worthy Princess" like its earlier edition. And that character was our (or at least mine) favorite, LeFou — the stupid bumbler; LeFou, in the recent editions, has the distinctive quality of self-exploration. In the live-action counterpart, LeFou is seen sharing some feelings for his "partner in crime" — Gaston.

For once and for all: No! there was no exclusive gay moment between the LeFou and Gaston; however, its gayness and self-exploration do meet a happy end with Gatson, which personally, I recommend you watch the movie to know about it.

So, What Was Gay Lefou Really Up to in the Movie?

Lefou, Beauty and the beast gay was as Lefou as he had ever been, a slovenly, dimwitted braggart filled up to the neck with rum and whiskey.

Of course, Disney has always "somehow" managed also indicates that LeFou is anything but not what he seems. Yes, he does not have the respect as Gaston, but in any way, LeFou is far from being just the "stupid" character the audience believes him to be. For instance, think of the time when LeFou managed to convince Maurice that — Maurice indeed has seen the Beast to lynch him in from of the mob; these small subtleties depict that LeFou, who people think of as the dastardly sidekick of Gaston, is much more than what people make of him. But then again, you cannot ascertain from his simplicity and aloofness that Lefou is innocent or not because the reason why LeFou fools Maurice into taking his life because of him — is on the orders of Gaston. And this is only one example; there are many instances in the movie (all series) where he has hidden into the shadows of Gaston to commit a crime.

And, in the recent edition of the live-action movies — Disney seems to have put more effort into LeFou's life but not LeFou himself. He is the same — a drunkard bumbler — who once again shares his love & hate aspirations with the likes of Gaston. As stated, Disney took more effort towards depicting LeGou's life — but his partner in crime, his attitude, his drunkenness got the same demonstration as Disney showed his character the first time ever.

LeFou is still a reliant accessory of Gaston — sharing the same admiration, respect, and submissiveness towards him, LeFou does not hesitate in pursuing anything that Gaston asks him of. And LeFou himself still does not think that is he is more than that. If you carefully retrospect, you will find that LeFou is as same as he was in the previous appearances — earlier Beauty and the Beast, House of the Mouse. His personality is just like that — Accompany Gaston to the bar, leave him alone, and sing, "Let's Slay the Beast" in the background with others. In all ways, LeFou, in the recent movie in question — is under the thumb of Gaston.

LeFou's feeling, on the other hand, is not at all the same as what it used to be. If you remember, in the animated Beauty and the Beast movie, LeFou shows some infatuation to the "The Bimbettes" when the triplets were busy singing about his (master) Gaston. As this is a masterpiece of the 1990s and one specially made for children, the ecstasy is not shown in this story as clearly. But the depiction — though subtle — is clear enough for the audience. But that is not the same now, as, after the show of Claudette, Laurette, Paulette — LeFou tells them, "It is not going to happen, Ladies."

Is Gaston Gay? What Point is Worth Believing?

The reason for this question to be this famous is — a fair share of fan speculation of the Beauty and the beast gay references, nothing more. Yes, Disney portrays Gatson as the cliché handsome gay best friend of LeFou.

But Gaston — in all its entirety — is purely straight! And unless the next Beauty and Beast edition come from an alternate universe, Gaston will be straight even in future premieres. The doubt of Gaston's gender, after his intense following of his wife Bella, is rather stupid of people to put it out in the first place. This becomes even more clear in the "Sing Me a Story with Belle," which puts Belle as protagonist and focuses more on her, but you can see Gaston even there. You guessed it: Gaston there too was the "same." He left no trail unfollowed in pursuing Belle and convincing her to marry. Further, in "Once Upon a Time," — you can see Gaston once again married to Belle and sharing his sincere affection towards her.

So, No. Gaston is not gay.

And Gaston once again continues to be straight in the live-action counterpart of the original Beauty and the Beast. Moreover (pun intended), who would ask Luke Evans to play the gay part (no doubt his acting skills). Nonetheless, you will still find Gaston pursuing Belle — on the roads of Tavern — where his subordinate and the villagers still cheer and pray to God that he gets the love of his life — Belle. Nonetheless, once again — the son of Lord LeGume — the nobleman meets the same fate as he already met. Though in a different way (I know how to handle spoilers).

Top Unknown Facts About Beauty and The Beast LGBT Scene

Many people would say Disney is mysterious for this gay Beauty and the beast story. As we all know, Disney surprises, overwhelms, and sometimes even disappoints where it should not have been. Still, people love it because it strives to keep things interesting. As interesting as it could be. And this could be a viable reason for Disney not to step with the LGBTQ in its films because it simply wanted to keep things interesting. From the start of the Cinema, gay characters were not given any attention. In fact, in the cinematic world, the word — "gay, homosexuality, lesbian, bisexual" was non-existent. And Disney, too, followed the same path. And why should it not if it really was getting the successful attention as per its expectations. However, when the "real-world" movies started focusing on the subject, Disney came forward and contributed its part as much as it can in "fantasy-filled" movies. Though late, it came strong. And this "strong" was clear with the announcement that it will include the change of our world in its wishful storylines. But it also took a lot of heat to bring that change. Here are some Unknown Facts About Beauty and The Beast LGBT Scene:

  • Initially, Disney never intended to introduce its first-ever gay character as LeFou. It planned it for some other "unknown" story, but LeFou was not even close in their laundry list of characters whom they thought to introduce as their exclusive gay character to the world. Of course, Disney was planning to include a character in view and respect of the recent LGBTQ movements LeFou was unintentional. Nonetheless, the members of the LGBTQ were happy to see Disney taking the initiative and making a move in respect towards the community.
  • The gayness in Beauty and the Beast was an affirmative action towards the LGBTQ community and was appreciated only by them. But the appreciation was pretty much limited exclusively in the LGBTQ community. The normal audience did not receive it as affectionately as them. Nor did the Middle Eastern Countries like Saudi Arabia. The same was the case in Malaysia. These countries demanded Disney — to remove the gay moments from the film, but Disney withheld and said, you can ban the movies in your countries, but we will not remove a bit from the film.
  • Disney took some appreciable stands towards the LGBTQ community and recently has said, "We want to represent our audience" — meaning, it will continue to include LGBTQ characters in its upcoming movies, not only the Beauty and the Beast franchise.
  • Though a change in the movies, Disney is still to sanction the "Gay Days" to its employees. Many employees over the years have requested Disney to leave them alone during the modern festivities, but Disney insists they work like any other day.
  • Compared to the usual TV shows and movies, Disney's straight to homosexual character ratio is slim to none, if any. In 2020, the ratio of normal TV was 10.2 percent, the highest of all time.

Conclusion

Disney being late with the portrayal of the first-ever gay character has everything to do with the audience. Yes, audience. Disney should receive its fair share of criticism for being late, but it was simply catering to the audience's needs. Users expect Disney to show them a fairytale from the ice ages, where the Princess weds the prince in the end. Users themselves do not desire Disney to fail on the promise of fantasy. Moreover, they do not aspire to Disney to depict today's cultural and societal mores.

And when users belatedly asked Disney to cover LGBTQ in those "fantasy-world" films — Disney, without hesitation, fulfilled that obligation.