'Beauty and the Beast' flap shows how far our society has to go

I probably won't be seeing the new live action/CGI mash-up version of Beauty and the Beast.

I have nothing against the movie, I just don't think I am the target audience for this type of thing, and I've always had a hard time getting excited to see purely romantic movies. My wife, on the other hand, will be seeing it with a bunch of her girlfriends today.

That said, it looks very well done -- from a special effects perspective, as well as from a production, design and casting perspective, and it is already trending to become another massive hit for Disney, which is on a real roll with its Marvel and Star Wars franchises.

It's also generating controversy, albeit the asinine, embarrassing kind, because it's updated a minor character from the 1991 animated original to make him overtly gay. This change has no significant impact on the narrative (as far as I know) and in no way takes center stage.

And yet, a theater in Alabama is now boycotting the film (as if that will prevent audiences from seeing it, or knowing that gay people exist). Our president's favorite foreign country, Russia, is banning it for anyone under age 16. And likely hundreds of religious right zealots, who have nothing better to do than get butthurt over the idea that their precious LeFou likes men now, are decrying the film on every social media platform.

I have several initial impressions of this stupidity. It has a time capsule quality to it. Like Rick Santorum's argument -- made on national television -- that gay marriage was a slippery slope to bestiality. This will be one of those faux controversies that we look back on and shake our heads -- both bemused and appalled that our society was ever so ignorant.

Gaston and LeFou in the new Beauty and the Beast

It's telling that this backlash has arrived just weeks after the miraculous Best Picture victory of the forward-thinking LGBT-themed film Moonlight. Lost amid the odd circumstances in which it was rewarded, was the fact that with its entirely black cast, and willingness to avoid cliches (it doesn't punish its gay characters by killing them off), Moonlight's victory signaled that Hollywood may be finally opening its doors to broader representation and understanding.

And Disney, a company founded by an FBI informant who some have suggested had fascist political leanings, and a brand which has for decades defined itself as a vessel for codifying conservative family values, has begun to show a real 'woke-ness' when it comes to social issues.

With some fanfare, the company rebuked North Carolina and threatened to pull their productions out of other Southern states when they started to roll back rights for their transgender citizens.

And in their Marvel and now, Star Wars, productions, they have started to make a real effort to put women and minorities in positions of power and prominence, so much so that last year's most popular film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, was vilified by people in the alt-right and white supremacists (which are the same thing) because of its racial diversity. They actively rooted for its failure, and well, we saw how that worked out.

Also, you may recall some similar hackles greeting the decision to out the Sulu character as gay in a subtle maybe-3-second moment in the most recent Star Trek film. Once again, the sky didn't fall.

The same fate will greet Beauty and the Beast. It will be an enormous hit, and not because it's trying to somehow indoctrinate children with LGBT-friendly thoughts (although, if a child walks out of the theater with a sense of normalcy and sameness, that's not a bad thing). It'll be a big hit because it's a well-made, recognizable story that audiences love, and while I am sure the loud minority whining about a gay character is disappointing for Disney, it won't hurt their bottom line.

In other words, I don't think gay characters are going away. Just like real-life gay people they are here to stay, and that means you can either get over it or become Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, by burying your head in the sand and pretending that a massive population of people just doesn't exist, while the overwhelming majority of the rest of the world marches past you.