Disney’s historical past with queer illustration on-screen is, diplomatically, dicey at greatest. The firm’s sluggish arc towards introducing LGBTQIA+ characters in main roles and tentpole movies has laid the groundwork for eventual substance, however right here and now, they’re principally half steps—half steps that, as a rule, are extra embarrassing than they’re meaningfully progressive.

Disney is in no way the solely firm that comes off trying dangerous throughout Pride each June—there’s a cause “Rainbow Capitalism” has turn out to be a snarkily correct learn on main manufacturers rainbow-coating their social media profiles and calling it a job nicely finished for the month. But Disney seems notably egregious celebrating as a result of, nicely, all 12 months ‘round it otherwise does the barest of minimums to incorporate LGBTQIA+ stories and characters in its biggest material, leaving them on the cutting room floor or slight enough to be edited out of movies to better appeal to bigoted markets that Disney would otherwise love to see some money out of. And so, this Pride, here’s eight of the queer characters the House of Mouse has one way or the other managed to herald as main “Firsts” for the studio—ranked by simply how embarrassingly minor steps they really had been for one of many greatest leisure firms on this planet.

[Editor’s Note: We’ve updated this article on 10/19/2021 to include Marvel’s introduction of a queer character in Eternals. It was originally published on 6/3/2021.]