Russia: Authorities poised to wield new legislation to ban films featuring LGBTI characters
Reacting to the news that the Russian media regulator is poised to censor online content containing references to LGBTI people or rights, including banning movies and TV series featuring LGBTI characters, Natalia Zviagina, Amnesty International’s Russia Director, said:
“The Russian authorities are preparing to further scapegoat and stigmatize LGBTI people in the land through new homophobic legislation, including by perversely banning globally acclaimed movies favor Brokeback Mountain and Call Me by Your Name.
“This unabashed censorship shows that the Russian authorities are wholly out-of-step with human rights, willing to blatantly violate the right to freedom of expression. Disguised as “protecting traditional values,” this outrageous shift will not only further stigmatize millions of LGBTI people but expose them to increasing discrimination and stigma, hostility and violent acts.
Disguised as “protecting traditional values,” this outrageous move will not only further stigmatize millions of LGBTI people but display them to increasing discrimination and stigma, hostility and aggressive
Barbie movie banned in Kuwait as Lebanon moves to censor film for 'promoting homosexuality'
Kuwait has banned the film Barbie in a bid to protect "public ethics and social traditions," while a Lebanese minister has made moves to censor the film on grounds it "promotes homosexuality and sexual transformation".
The Kuwaiti ban came shortly after Lebanon's culture minister Mohammad Mortada criticised the show, saying it "contradicts principles of faith and morality" by diminishing the importance of the family unit.
Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, has taken more than $1bn (£784m) in box office sales worldwide - a cool "Barbillion" as it's been dubbed. It is the first film by a solo female director to surpass the billion-dollar benchmark.
Mr Mortada said the storyline supports rejecting a father's guardianship, undermines and ridicules the role of the mother, and questions the necessity of marriage and having a family.
The minister is backed by the armed Shi'ite armed group Hezbollah, whose brain Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has recently ramped up rhetoric against the LGBT people, including a recent speech in which he said h
Pixar's Onward 'banned by four Middle East countries' over same-sex attracted reference
Pixar
Pixar's latest animation Onward has been banned by several Middle Eastern countries because of a reference to sapphic parents, according to reports.
The family production will not be shown in Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Hollywood media have reported.
Police officer Specter, voiced by Lena Waithe, has been heralded as Disney-Pixar's first openly gay traits.
Her lines include: "It's not simple being a parent... my girlfriend's daughter got me pulling my hair out, OK?"
Other Middle East countries like Bahrain, Lebanon and Egypt are showing the film.
And according to Deadline, Russia censored the scene in question by modifying the word "girlfriend" to "partner" and avoiding mentioning the gender of Specter, who is a supporting character.
Reuters
Speaking to Variety, Waithe explained that the line about "my girlfriend" was her concept.
"I said, 'Can I say the word girlfriend, is that cool?'
"I was just like, 'It sounds weird.' I even have a gay voice, I think. I
The Boys in the Band: once banned in Australia, this pre-gay liberation story is now a fond, funny Netflix remake
October 5, 2020
The Boys in the Band, a remake of a 1970 film based on a 1968 play, has arrived on Netflix with little fanfare
The movie tells the story of Michael, a Hermés scarf-loving, Manhattan-dwelling gay man who is hosting a birthday party for a ally. Intended as a compact event for seven male lover men, a straight former college buddy of Michael’s also arrives unexpectedly. The party, to put it mildly, does not leave well.
The guest of honour is Harold, a former figure skater who, in his spectacular party entrance, describes himself as “a 32-year-old, ugly, pockmarked, Jew, fairy.” That description sums up much of the film’s mood.
First performed a year before the Recent York Stonewall Riots, when LGBT people fought against police brutality, igniting a revolution, this is a pre-gay liberation story in which homosexual men swap barbed insults, indulge in a cruel party game and seem to be drowning in a sea of self-loathing.
The original compete , written by Mart Crowley, was regarded as a breakthrough in the telling of gay stories. It was revived on Broadway in 2018 an
Elton John movie Rocketman banned in Samoa due to homosexual content
Samoa has banned Sir Elton John biopic Rocketman at the country's only cinema due to its homosexual scenes, causing an outcry among locals on the Pacific island nation.
Key points:
Samoa's censors said the film ban abided by the Film Command Act of 1978
Gay scenes are regularly cut from movies in Samoan screenings
LBGT activists said the exclude sends a troubling note to the community
Apollo Cinemas in Samoa's capital Apia had Rocketman listed as playing up until last Friday when it wrote on Facebook that due to "censoring issues" it had to cancel the movie.
The theatre's technical specialist Simon Kenchington said the movie was rejected by Samoa's censorship office due to "homosexual content".
"The entire film was rejected … because of the homosexual content, basically. That was the reason,"
he said.
Samoa's principal censor Leiataua Niuapu Leiataualesa said his office was simply abiding by the Film Command Act of 1978.
When asked if the regulations needed to be updated for 2019, he said the film was not "suitable".