Disney cuts trans storyline from Pixar series over fears of parental backlash

Fearing a backlash from parents, Disney has cut a transgender storyline from Pixar’s upcoming original animated sports series Win or Lose, a show about a co-ed middle school softball team. Pixar employees have previously accused Disney of censoring LGBTQ+ content from its animated projects. LGBTQ Nation contacted Disney and Pixar for comment and will update this story if they respond.

The storyline’s removal from the series occurs as Republicans increasingly block trans children’s access to gender-affirming healthcare and their participation on sports teams matching their gender identity. Attacks on trans rights are expected to intensify under the coming administration of President-elect Donald Trump.

Related:

The eight-episode series, which premieres on February 19, 2025, follows the off-field experiences of different characters associated with the team. The 14-year-old character that would’ve identified as trans will remain in the show, but the lines of dialogue referencing gender identity have been removed, The Hollywood Reporter wrote. The decision was made several months ago.

Stay connected to your community

Connect with the issues and events that impact your community at home and beyond by subscribing to our newsletter.

“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 Disney spokesperson told the publication.

Disney has censored LGBTQ+ content before from Pixar’s work

In November, Disney shelved an episode of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur that focused on a trans classmate who receives support from her teammates after her coach removes her from a girls’ volleyball team.

 A Disney spokesperson said, “In this case, this decision was based on this specific episode, not because of the character being trans,” adding that the episode wasn’t “banned” per se, but rather was being “held.”

In March 2022, a letter written by “the LGBTQIA+ employees of Pixar, and their allies” alleged that Disney cut “nearly every moment of overtly gay affection… regardless of when there is protest from both the creative teams and executive leadership at Pixar.”

The letter, which criticized then-Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s refusal to speak out publicly against Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill banning LGBTQ+ instruction from public school classrooms.

“Even if creating LGBTQIA+ content was the answer to fixing the discriminatory legislation in the world, we are being barred from creating it,” the Pixar employees wrote.

Disney had cut a same-sex kiss in the Toy Story prequel, Lightyear, but restored the kiss shortly after the Pixar employees released their letter. Pixar’s films have never featured an explicitly trans character, however its 2023 film Elemental featured a nonbinary character named Lake Ripple, a water elemental whose slim body is made of blue translucent fluid.

In 2020, the Disney+ streaming platform featured a Pixar short, “Out,” about a closeted man who is outed to his parents when he accidentally switches bodies with his dog.

Transphobia will worsen under Trump 2.0 — how will Disney react?

The issues of transgender children accessing gender-affirming care and playing sports have become politically charged over the last few years. As of December, 26 states have banned gender-affirming care for trans minors and banned trans children from playing on sports teams matching their gender identity.

President-elect Trump has promised to do more to restrict trans rights during his second presidency. In addition to re-banning trans people from the military on day one,

Trump has promised to ban gender-affirming care for minors nationwide and prohibit federal agencies from “promot[ing] the concept of sex and gender transition at any age.” His Department of Justice told the Supreme Court it is legal to discriminate against transgender employees. His administration will also seek religious exemptions for employers who discriminate based on LGBTQ+ identities.

He has also promised to reverse Obama-era guidelines protecting transgender students’ access to bathrooms matching their gender identity and to repeal other trans-inclusive education policies.

Disney’s now-former CEO Chapek said he would meet Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to discuss somehow preventing the “Don’t Say Gay” bill from being weaponized against LGBTQ+ people. Chapelk also noted that Disney joined more than 150 other companies on a national business statement opposing anti-LGBTQ state legislation organized by the Human Rights Campaign and Freedom for All Americans.

Disney then said it would donate $5 million to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and other LGBTQ rights organizations. HRC rejected its donation and said Disney needed to take more direct action to combat the bill. Chapek eventually apologized to employees for not denouncing the bill.

“You needed me to be a stronger ally in the fight for equal rights and I let you down. I am sorry,” Chapek said in a follow-up message to staffers. Disney has since resumed giving donations to politicians who supported “Don’t Say Gay.”

Disney has taken other steps in favor of the LGBTQ+ community

The company began offering health care coverage to the domestic partners of LGBTQ+ employees in 1996 and its Disney World theme park has hosted the unofficial annual “Gay Days” event in which LGBTQ+ fans visit in red t-shirts.

In 2019, Disney launched its first-ever official Pride event, Disneyland Paris Pride, and in 2023, Disney announced its first US-based Pride event at its Disneyland California park called Disneyland After Dark: Pride Nite. Both events featured Pride-themed events, parades, and merchandise.

In 2022, Disney reported that a portion of the proceeds of its sales of Pride gear would go towards numerous LGBTQ+ organizations including GLSEN, PFLAG, The Trevor Project, Zebra Coalition, Los Angeles LGBT Center, LGBT Center Orange County, San Francisco LGBT Center and Ali Forney Center. Its Pride gear sold in other parts of the world had their proceeds benefit local LGBTQ+ organizations.

While numerous villains in Disney’s earliest animated films were queer-coded, many have since been reclaimed as campy LGBTQ+ icons of disruptive and subversive power.

Disney’s animated films have only ever once featured an explicitly LGBTQ+ character, gay environmentalist teenager Ethan Clade in its 2022 film Strange Worlds. During the film, Clade admits his attraction to another boy.

Disney’s TV offerings have been generally more LGBTQ+ inclusive. A 2014 episode of Disney Channel’s Good Luck Charlie featured a lesbian couple as minor characters, and a 2017 episode of Disney Junior’s Doc McStuffins introduced a pair of lesbian mothers.

The 2016 finale of the supernatural adventure series Gravity Falls revealed that two overzealous policemen were a couple, but the series’ creator Alex Hirsch accused Disney of repeatedly removing LGBTQ+ content from the series throughout its creation.

A 2019 episode of Star vs. the Forces of Evil featured a same-sex kiss in the background of one scene. That same year, Michael Collins, a character in the animated series The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, came out as gay and gender non-conforming.

In May 2022, Disney’s animated series The Owl House featured a same-sex kiss between Luz Noceda and Amity Blight and a romantic attraction between female witch Eda Clawthorne and nonbinary bard Rain Whispers. The show’s bisexual female Dana Terrace said she had to fight for LGBTQ+ inclusion in the show.

Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Don’t forget to share: