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Frozen 2: People are campaigning to make Elsa the first LGBT Disney princess

Twitter users are hoping the hashtag #GiveElsaAGirlfriend will encourage the studio to provide better LGBT representation in its animation

Clarisse Loughrey
Sunday 01 May 2016 09:26 EDT
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Disney's animated hit Frozen was progressive in so many ways: swerving the traditional princess narrative for a story focused entirely on the strength of women, and the love between two sisters.

It was also widely praised as being one of the studio's most LGBT-friendly productions yet; Jonathan Groff is Disney Animation's first openly gay actor to play the protagonist's love interest, and Oaken is arguably the studio's most visible LGBT character, thanks to a brief shot in the film of what appears to be his husband and children.

Yet, that's all small fry compared to the major step Disney has yet to make: creating the studio's first LGBT princess. What better candidate is there for that honour than Elsa, whose own journey of acceptance with her powers has widely been interpreted as a metaphor for coming out?

Indeed, Elsa's big, empowering number "Let it Go" has already become a major gay anthem; so why not turn the subtext into text, and give Elsa a female love interest in the studio's slated sequel for the film?

That's exactly what the campaign #GiveElsaAGirlfriend hopes to achieve; encouraging Disney animation to improve LGBT representation in its movies with its first gay princess.


Television network ABC, owned by Disney, has already set the precedent with its show Once Upon a Time, which incorporates live-action iterations of classic Disney animated characters, introducing several gay characters into its storylines.

Mulan suffered unrequited love for Aurora, with Little Red Riding Hood's Ruby and The Wizard of Oz's Dorothy more recently becoming a couple.

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