Buzz Lightyear branded an LGBTQ+ ally after slaying Disney parade: ‘We knew Buzz could serve’
After briefly dragging up as Mrs Nesbitt in 1995’s Toy Story, Buzz Lightyear has once again left fans gagged. (TikTok/@BrittBrattCattt)
Everyone’s favourite Disney space toy, Buzz Lightyear, has been branded an LGBTQ+ ally after gagging onlookers at a Disney parade while dancing with a rainbow Pride fan.
Disney’s road to LGBTQ+ acceptance and inclusion has been long, winding, and incredibly rocky.
For years, the entertainment giant promised to introduce LGBTQ+ characters into their biggest films. The results, though, have often been blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments depicting two same-sex people who were supposedly queer, yet whose identity was not explicitly unmentioned.
Take 2016’s Finding Dory, which included one ten second scene of two women looking into a pram together. Many assumed the pair were lesbians, yet co-director Andrew Stanton said at the time: “They can be whatever you want them to be.”
Also released in 2016, Zootopia featured Disney’s first ‘explicitly’ queer couple – though the word “explicit” is doing a lot of heavy lifting. As the credits roll on the film, two male antelopes that feature in it are listed as having the same surname, fuelling speculation that the pair are married.
However, the tide has changed in recent years, albeit very slowly. Last year, Disney boss Karey Burke promised “many, many, many LGBTQIA” characters in Disney stories going forward.
Disney favourites including Raven’s Home and 2022 film Strange World, which included Disney’s first openly gay teen romance, have led the charge in making Disney more LGBTQ+ friendly.
Most recently, new Disney film Elemental features non-binary character Lake, played by non-binary actor Ava Kai Hause.
It appears there’s also now plenty of room for LGBTQ+ allies in Disney’s magic kingdom too, if a new viral TikTok is to be taken at face value.
Earlier this week (26 June), TikTok user BrittBrattCattt uploaded a short yet telling clip of Toy Story’s masc space king Buzz Lightyear at one of the Walt Disney World Resort park parades, in which he asserts his support for the queers.
Grabbing a rainbow-coloured Pride fan from an onlooker, Buzz struts his stuff and werks the floor, before ‘thworping’ the fan and carrying on with his day.
The TikTok user uploaded the clip, with Lady Gaga’s LGBTQ+ anthem “Born This Way” playing over the top, alongside the caption: “Buzz is an ALLY (now canon).”
Toy Story fans have leapt at the chance to proclaim the gruff superhero – voiced by Tim Allen in the films – as an ally of the community – or possibly part of the community himself.
“You can’t tell me Buzz isn’t at least a little bi,” theorised one fan. “Come on, there’s definitely some underlying tones with Woody!”
”Buzz loves Jessie but he may also love Woody. I could see it,” voiced another.
Over the years, a handful of fans have declared that Buzz and Woody potentially have something more than just platonic affection for one another.
Perhaps Buzz Lightyear has always been an queer ally, though, considering his best friend in 2022 film Lightyear, Alisha Hawthorne (Uzo Aduba), is in a sapphic relationship.
Plus, as fans have pointed out, Buzz Lightyear has never been afraid of getting a little dragged up. Cast your minds back to 1995’s original Toy Story film and you’ll remember Buzz’s short-lived moment as sassy tea party guest, Mrs Nesbitt.
“‘I AM MRS. NESBITT.’ We knew it then and now,” reminisced one fan, while another simply summed up our thoughts on Buzz Lightyear as a queer ally with this meaningful comment: “SLAY BUZZ!”
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