What The Lion King teaches kids about racism - Simba is cis male scum

[Kari Kamiya]

Now if you want actual gay reps in Lion King to use in case you get into an argument, Nathan Lane (Timon's VA) was gay and was part of an anti-AIDS activist health group that has helped a lot of AIDS victims (and I always find it odd how no one ever counts the actors as reps)

I think their "reasoning" for not using it as rep is that the actor themselves has to come out and say it and just personify it themselves--Craig Ferguson had apparently envisioned Gobber of How to Train Your Dragon as gay and pretty much had to confirm it himself (so there was a brief throwaway line he ad-libbed in the sequel to hint at it), but Craig's not gay himself, so you don't hear about it. Cogsworth was played by a gay actor, yet funnily enough you don't hear David Ogden Stiers being used as a rep for the character either.

But yeah, I'm honestly surprised you don't hear of anyone saying Timon's totes gay simply because of his voice actor and the performance given to the character. Given he dressed up as a hula dancer and hammed that up, it's like the animators were in on it from the start for fuck's sake. And then there's Lion King 1 1/12, hoo boy they weren't even trying to hide it...

and I recall the Lion King cartoon series from the 90s implied Zazu was gay too.

Shit, I almost forgot about Zazu, and he's such a prima donna. Man, I just love how short-sighted a lot of these "fans" are when it comes to analyzing something as simple as Lion King for gay rep. It's like supporting characters "don't count" or something.

 

[Monsieur Guillotine]

It's funny that the dangerhair who wrote this tried to work the "teaching our kids bad stuff" angle, while 100% of children who watch cartoons either aren't even capable of reading that far into them, or they simply don't care.