HONG KONG: A Hong Kong Christian school has asked parents to prevent their children from watching Disney’s new film Beauty and the Beast over its gay scenes.
In a notice to parents on Thursday, International Christian Quality Music Secondary and Primary School in Diamond Hill said that Disney had made changes to the original children’s story by including gay scenes.
“The school has been teaching the children with the truths in the Bible to let them understand Gods’ purposes of creating mankind. God disapproves of homosexuality. Therefore we call on the parents not to bring them or let them watch the film,” the notice read.
The school said it hoped that God would protect children’s hearts and lead them to walk on the right track.
Family School Sodo (Sexual Orientation Discrimination Ordinance) Concern Group, which says it upholds family values, said they appreciated and supported the school’s move.
The group’s convener Roger Wong Wai-ming said his group was not against “personal choices of adopting homosexuality”, but said it was a “gay movement” by some international enterprises that worried them.
He was referring to companies like Disney which “has a trend to introduce elements of homosexuality in its productions.”
The group said it would again urge Disney to cut all gay moments in the film and it believed this would not affect the structure of the story.
Wong said Disney and the Office for Film, Newspaper and Article Administration were misleading parents by adopting category one for the film, which means it is suitable for all ages.
It might consider upgrading its protest with a petition against the office for its rating for the film, if Disney refused to listen to their call.
The film, featuring Disney’s first openly gay character, opened in Hong Kong on Thursday.
This article first appeared in South China Morning Post