Like Russia before it, Malaysia has come up with a compromise for handling the new Beauty and the Beast’s “exclusively gay moment.” Previously, the Muslim-majority country’s censorship board, the LPF, had requested to cut more than four minutes of footage from the film — including an entire song, and scenes alluding to LeFou’s sexuality — but Disney wouldn’t budge, only offering to delay the film’s release there to give the country more time to reconsider. Now, Malaysia will reportedly show the film uncut, despite its LGBTQ support, but with a PG-13 rating. (In America, the film just won the biggest opening weekend for a PG film ever.) Similarly, Russia had wanted to ban the film entirely because of the hyped-up gay moment; instead, they enforced an age restriction of 16 and older. Beauty and the Beast will now open in Malaysia on March 30, making the world just ever-so-slightly more inclusively gay.
