Fact Check

Does a Disney Cartoon Feature the Studio's First Gay Kiss?

A meme urging a boycott of Disney after the studio featured a same-sex kiss in a cartoon does not display the actual moment of animated affection.

Published March 3, 2017

Claim:
An image shows two Disney animated characters sharing the studio's first same-sex kiss.
What's True

In February 2017, a cartoon shown on the Disney XD cable channel featured characters engaging in a same-sex kiss.

What's False

An image urging a boycott of Disney for their inclusion of a same-sex kiss features two characters unrelated to that development.

On 2 March 2017, the Facebook page "1,000,000 Supporting Traditional Marriage" shared an image featuring two male Disney figures engaging in a kiss, along with the claim that the studio had just aired its first ever same-sex kiss between animated characters:


Although the text accompanying the image is accurate — the program Star vs. The Forces of Evil did feature a same-sex kiss in an episode that aired on the Disney XD cable channel — the pictured characters were not involved in that moment of animated affection.

This images features a rendering of two characters from older classic Disney animated feature films — Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid (1989) and Prince Phillip from Sleeping Beauty (1959) — that was created by Mexican artist Rodolfo Loaiza for a series called "Disenchanted Disney." The kiss Loaiza depicted did not actually appear in any Disney television program or film.

The real same-sex kiss included in Star vs. The Forces of Evil featured two nameless background characters shown during a brief montage of kissing cartoons in the season 2 episode "Just Friends." The moment can be glimpsed at around the 1:25 second mark of the following video:

A second same-sex kiss can be spotted toward the end of this video:


We've reached out to Disney to confirm that this was the studio's first-ever animated same-sex kiss, but have yet to receive a response. Disney did feature a same-sex couple in a 2014 episode of the live-action television series Good Luck Charlie.

UPDATE: The original article misidentified the two Disney princes kissing in this meme as Prince Charming from Cinderella and the Prince from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Sources

Gollayan, Christian.   "Disney Has Its First Gay Kiss."     The New York Post.   1 March 2017.

Speedy, Sam.   "Disney XD Sprinkles a Same-Sex Kiss Into a Cartoon and It Feels Just Right."     Mashable.   27 February 2017.

Kuruvilla, Carol.   "Conservatives Angry After Disney Channel debuts Lesbian Couple on ‘Good Luck Charlie.'"     [New York] Daily News.   5 February 2014.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.

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