Snoop Dogg has questioned the increase in LGBTQ+ representation in modern animated children’s movies, asking, “We have to show that at this age?”
The rapper explained his perspective on the most recent episode of the “It’s Giving” podcast hosted by Sarah Fontenot. He recalled an experience he had taking his grandson to see Disney and Pixar’s “Toy Story” spinoff “Lightyear” in 2022 and the questions that his young family member asked him about the film’s featured lesbian relationship.
“What you see is what you see, and they’re putting it everywhere,” Snoop remarked, before revealing that his grandson was confused when “Lightyear” revealed that one of its characters had two mothers. “They’re like, ‘She had a baby — with a woman.’ Well, my grandson, in the middle of the movie, [was] like, ‘Papa Snoop? How she have a baby with a woman? She a woman!’”
“‘Oh sh-t. I didn’t come in for this sh-t. I just came to watch the goddamn movie,’” Snoop remembered thinking, adding that his grandson continued to demand an answer to his question. “‘They just said she and she had a baby. They both women. How does she have a baby?’”
In “Lightyear,” Alisha Hawthorne (Uzo Aduba), the best friend and co-officer to Chris Evans’ Buzz Lightyear, ends up stranded on an alien planet with Buzz and other members of their crew. In a subsequent montage, Alisha is shown marrying and raising a child with another woman, her partner Kiko.
According to Snoop Dogg, his grandson’s line of questioning during “Lightyear” has made him reluctant to go to other children’s movies with his family.
“It’s like, F—k me! I’m scared to go to the movies, man. Y’all throwing me in the middle of sh-t that I don’t have an answer for!” the rapper said. “It threw me for a loop. I’m like, ‘What part of the movie was this?’ These are kids. We have to show that at this age? They’re going to ask questions. I don’t have the answer.”
“Lightyear” received intense pushback for featuring a same-sex kiss between Aduba’s Alisha and her partner Kiko. It was banned in multiple Muslim nations, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and only viewers 16 years or older were allowed to see it in Singapore. The kiss itself was reportedly almost cut from the film prior to its release.
In the days since his “It’s Giving” appearance was posted, Snoop has received widespread criticism for his comments, which have been deemed insensitive and homophobic by many online.
In 2013, the rapper told The Huffington Post that he supported same-sex marriage, but his recent comments, notably, do not mark the first time that he has come under fire for homophobic language. In 2014, he also captioned an Instagram post with an anti-gay slur and he called Caitlyn Jenner a “science project” that same year.
You can listen to the full “It’s Giving” episode here.
