There has been increasing pressure on Disney to represent people of all colors, shapes, and sizes. While the company has tried to follow this direction, its attempts have been poor. There have been numerous instances of breaking news all over the internet about “Disney’s first gay character.” However, it’s unclear how many “first” characters Disney has produced, and continue to pop up. In this article, I will rank some of these “first” characters based on how accurate they are, how much screen time they received, and how well they fit into their respective movies overall. 

Number Five:

Lake Ripple (Elemental, 2023)

It’s funny to me that Disney’s “first openly non-binary character” is quite literally water. They are anthropomorphic WATER. Now, call me crazy, but I didn’t think that elements (water, air, fire) had a gender to begin with. I do not think Disney should be regarded as a hero when they… gave the water a neutral gender. With other animated and live-action studios, there is no current shortage of non-binary characters, so I’m not sure if this was a win.

Number Four:

Officer Specter (Onward, 2020)

This option is frustrating. As with most of the characters on this list, the only thing making Officer Specter “queer” is a quick sentence briefly mentioning her girlfriend. Now, to add to this already lackluster display of inclusivity, Disney makes her character god-awful ugly. A purple Cyclops? Thanks, Disney. Also, a lesbian cop? Not to say that there are not any queer police officers in the force, but it seems tasteless.

Number Three:

Bucky Oryx-Antlerson and Pronk Oryx-Antlerson (Zootopia, 2016)

First of all: I had no idea these characters were named until I did research for this article. This one is slightly above Officer Specter given that it is a coupling and not just a singular character. However, they put these poor antelopes in the most horrible relationship imaginable. Their only purpose on screen is to loudly fight and annoy the protagonist, Judy Hopps. Disney, if this will be your first animated gay couple, can you at LEAST put them into a happy relationship?

Number Two:

Alisha Hawthorne (Lightyear, 2022)

Slowly getting better (for Disney standards), Alisha has an on-screen girlfriend! And they’re in a happy relationship! However, having a short screen kiss does not qualify as a strong representation of queer life. Believe it or not, queer people do, exist beyond their relationships. The LGBT community is just people, living their lives like anybody else. It’s not like every straight character in film or television only talks about their significant other, right?

First Place:

Ethan Clade (Strange World, 2022)

I enjoyed this character. While the film overall had some issues, Ethan is a true LGBT character. Ethan enjoys helping his father with the farm, he yearns for adventure, and he spends part of the movie navigating the complexity of queer crushes in high school. Also, props for the POC (people of color) queer rep! While this is far from perfect, I appreciate Disney’s direction with this character.

Honorable Mention:

Lefou (Live Action Beauty and the Beast, 2017)

What even is this? If Lefou was gay, why wasn’t he gay in the original animated film? Also, the “gay moment” was Lefou dancing with another man for a few seconds. Josh Gad even voiced regret about this choice in 2022, stating “We didn’t go far enough.” While I can appreciate giving voice to many years of speculation that Lefou was gay, they didn’t show that in this remake.