Disney Removes Same-Sex Kiss From ‘Star Wars’ Film in Singapore

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/25/world/asia/star-wars-kiss-singapore.html

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A brief kiss between two female characters was removed from screenings of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” in Singapore, a country with restrictive laws against gay people.

Though lasting just a few seconds and hardly a major plot point, the kiss between two minor characters was notable as the first overt appearance of gay characters in a “Star Wars” film. Disney cut the kiss to preserve the film’s PG-13 rating in Singapore, according to reports.

“The applicant has omitted a brief scene which under the film classification guidelines would require a higher rating,” a representative of Singapore’s media regulator, Infocomm Media Development Authority, told The Guardian.

The next-highest rating, NC-16, would have barred children under 16 from attending.

Disney did not respond to a message sent on Tuesday.

There are few mainstream media representations of L.G.B.T. people in Singapore, where sex between men is punishable by up to two years in prison and there are no protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Anti-gay sentiment runs high in the conservative nation; 60 percent of Singaporeans surveyed in 2018 opposed gay marriage, according to the Institute of Policy Studies, a think tank.

The scene was already hotly debated among gay rights supporters. Some applauded the kiss as an overdue acknowledgment that gay people exist in the “Star Wars” universe. But others thought it was tokenism, saying a more robust gesture was needed to reinforce the message.

Some fans, seeing a palpable chemistry between two of the main characters, Finn and Poe Dameron, played by John Boyega and Oscar Isaac, hoped their bromance might elevate into romance. The actors have said they would have supported the development.

“Personally, I kind of hoped and wished that maybe that would’ve been taken further in the other films, but I don’t have control,” Mr. Isaac told Variety. “It seemed like a natural progression, but sadly enough it’s a time when people are too afraid, I think, of — I don’t know what.”

J.J. Abrams, the film’s director, had hinted before its release that there would be a moment that would please members of the L.G.B.T.Q. community, telling Variety that “it was important to me that people who go to see this movie feel that they’re being represented in the film.” In a 2017 interview with The Daily Beast, he said it was “insanely narrow-minded and counterintuitive to say that there wouldn’t be a homosexual character in that world.”

Responding to criticism of the scene, Mr. Abrams told MovieZine this month that it was an opportunity to show a kiss between women “without it being heavy-handed or making too loud of a deal.”

“Part of the whole experience was to see a same-sex couple have a moment together that was explicitly saying in this galaxy, everyone is there and is welcome,” he said.

Major film studios, including Disney, routinely bend to local sensitivities in hopes of maintaining access to viewers, especially in the lucrative Chinese market. The kiss was also cut from screenings in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, according to The Hollywood Reporter, but China’s censors allowed it.

Disney has tiptoed into including gay characters in its biggest film franchises. Donald Glover, who played Lando Calrissian in the “Star Wars” spinoff “Solo,” said in an interview with HuffPost that the resistance leader was pansexual but it did not figure into the plot. A gay character made a brief appearance in “Avengers: Endgame,” and LeFou, Gaston’s sidekick in “Beauty and the Beast,” was presented as gay in a 2017 live-action remake.

Singapore’s law against gay sex, which applies only to men, has been challenged in its top courts. A verdict is expected in the coming months.