A drive-in movie theater in a small town in Alabama announced on Thursday that it would not be showing the upcoming Disney film Beauty and the Beast since the film includes a “gay moment” of some kind. The message explains that the owners’ decision was motivated by their Christian faith.
“It is with great sorrow that I have to tell our customers that we will not be showing Beauty and the Beast at the Henagar Drive-In when it comes out,” a message on their Facebook page reads. “When companies continually force their views on us we need to take a stand. We all make choices and I am making mine.”
The message then explains that their decision was due to the fact that the film purportedly includes some sort of gay scene. According to the film’s director Bill Condon, the character LeFou is depicted as openly gay and has “a nice, exclusively gay moment.”
“LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston,” Condon explained to the New York Times. “He’s confused about what he wants. It’s somebody who’s just realizing that he has these feelings.”
It’s not clear what the “gay moment” will include exactly in the film, which is released in the United States March 17th.
The Henagar Drive-In message says that the owners, inspired by their Christian faith, only want to show family friendly films:
“If we can not take our 11 year old grand daughter and 8 year old grandson to see a movie we have no business watching it. If I can’t sit through a movie with God or Jesus sitting by me then we have no business showing it.
“I know there will be some that do not agree with this decision. That’s fine. We are first and foremost Christians. We will not compromise on what the Bible teaches.
“We will continue to show family oriented films so you can feel free to come watch wholesome movies without worrying about sex, nudity, homosexuality and foul language. Thank you for your support!”
At the time of this writing, their post has been shared nearly 1600 times, has received around 4000 positive reactions, and around 1000 negative reactions. Comments on the post are also both positive and negative.
“Great job standing up for Christian values!” says one positive commenter. “It’s awesome to see business owners putting God before political correctness.”
“Congratulations on swiftly becoming the most talked about bigots across the country!” says a negative comment. “Keep it up and perhaps you’ll surpass Kim and the cake shop!”