Disney's Frozen is 'evil pro-homosexual propaganda'? Well, it's about time somebody taught LGBT sex education

Christian pastor Keith Swanson has revealed Satan’s latest plan to indoctrinate our children and turn us all gay, and Lord the devil is a crafty beast.

According to Swanson, Satan is working through Walt Disney to produce pro-homosexual movies and “do something really, really, really evil to five and six and seven year-olds in Christian families around America.”

The new Disney film “Frozen” is cited as evidence of this. Swanson himself doesn’t offer specific examples of the latest “very evil pro-homosexual propaganda”, having not actually seen it. However he does proselytise “I’m not a tinfoil hat conspiratorialist, but you wonder sometimes if maybe there’s something very evil happening here. If I was the Devil, what would I do to really foul up an entire social system and do something really, really, really evil to 5- and 6- and 7-year-olds in Christian families around America?…If I was the Devil, I would buy Disney in 1984, that’s what I would have done.”

A number of critics have noticed Frozen's “gay themes”. The film’s protagonist Elsa is uninterested in male suitors and is seen as “different”. Her parents advise her to hide this from others, singing “conceal it, don’t feel it”, while the troll king asks “Born this way or cursed?” The Oscar-winning song 'Let it Go' shows Elsa embracing her true identity and feeling at one with herself. Critics have compared it with the equivalent of a gay person coming out.

While it's up for debate whether Frozen really is dealing with ‘gay’ themes I think if Disney is teaching our children about LGBT relationships, then it’s not a moment too soon.

The state of sex education in this country is shameful. We’re so squeamish about sex we don’t even know the difference between porn and sexual health advice. Internet providers were found to blocking websites non-pornographic LGBT and sexual health websites as part of their porn filters in December. Guidance for teachers on how to teach sex education hasn’t been updated since 2000. Not only does that advice fail to address the different relationship problems this digital generation faces, but when that guidance was put out, the ‘Section 28’ law was still in place, legislation that banned teachers from “intentionally promoting” homosexuality in lessons. It was repealed in 2003, but last August dozens of schools in England and Wales were accused of using language in sex education policies that harked back to this antiquated, repressive legislation.

Ignoring LGBT issues in schools is having a real and damaging effect on the mental and physical health of our children. Two in five primary school teachers say children experience homophobic bullying, whether gay or not. When researchers spoke to secondary school teachers, that figure became nine in ten teachers. Half of gay people have skipped school because of homophobic bullying and even worse, 60 per cent feel there is no one at home or at school who they can talk to about being gay. With statistics like these, is it any wonder that young gay and bisexual men have the highest incidence of HIV in the population. Or that four in 10 young gay people admit to suicidal thoughts. If Keith Richardson wants to talk about things that are “really really really evil” he might want to take heed of these stats and the real experiences of the people that make up these numbers.

Yet it doesn't look like the government is going to change anything soon. Nick Clegg and Michael Gove have been rowing over the drawing up of sex education guidance, with Gove worried that “changing social mores” when it comes to sex would only mean that new guidelines would become out of date very quickly.

Although new LGBT guidance has been welcomed by the schools minister, in January the Lords rejected an amendment to the Children and Families Bill, which would have made sex education, including lessons on same-sex relationships, compulsory across state schools.

With all this expensive political wrangling and laborious legislation, perhaps a Disney film that is enjoyable for parents and kids and introduces LGBT themes isn’t such a bad idea. As for Pastor Keith Swanson not seeing the 'gay' film? He should probably embrace the experience. He might just enjoy it.