Beauty and the Beast Removed from Cinemas in Kuwait

Emily Palone

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Disney’s live action remake of “Beauty and the Beast” has been removed from theaters in Kuwait over concerns around the “gay moment” in the film. Beauty and the Beast, starring Emma Watson as Belle and Dan Stevens as the Beast, has taken more than $350m around the world and opened in Kuwait on Thursday, rated PG-13.

Kuwait’s National Cinema Company had begun screenings of Beauty and the Best last Thursday before theatergoers were alerted on Monday were alerted via text message that all future screenings of the film had been cancelled. According to the Daily Mail, the text message cited “unforeseen difficulties” for the cancellations.

The remake of the classic animation makes LeFou, villain Gaston’s sidekick, the first openly gay character in a Disney film history. Homosexuality is not illegal in Kuwait but is punishable by death in some countries, but in Kuwait it carries a sentence of up to six years in jail. For that reasoning, is why it was removed. The scene lasts less than two seconds and involves the character, played by Josh Gad (LeFou), holding hands and dancing with another man.

Duaij Al-Khalifa Al-Sabah, a board member at the National Cinema Company, which operates 11 of Kuwait’s 13 movie theaters, said a newly edited version of the movie may be in cinemas later this week.  ‘We were requested to stop the screening and further censor the movie for things that were deemed offensive by the Ministry of Information’s censorship department,’ Al-Sabah said. The company had promised to refund all tickets.