Anyone remember Carson Lang? He was going to be Lizzie McGuire’s gay neighbor in the planned revival of the series. This fact has escaped the attention of those discussing the show’s possible demise due to adult content, the same issue that sent “Love, Victor” over to Hulu.
I first reported on this in quoting an article from “Discussing Film” back on Oct. 26, 2019. They said the openly gay neighbor “is codenamed Carson Lang (it is unknown if this will be the character’s actual name in the series). Lang will be a neighbor and friend of Lizzie McGuire, he will likely feature in a series regular capacity in the series.”
It seems likely that a second gay character would be needed, at least in a recurring role, so Carson could have a love interest.
It’s speculative to say if this gay character was part of the adult content Disney was concerned about. But it does seem rather coincidental.
“But Disney has a gay week at Disney World” that doesn’t mean they’re pro LGBT. It just means they want to make money off of the LGBT community.
Over the past several years it’s been troubling seeing all these headlines about Disney making history for the LGBT community but it’s not been historical. At best it’s breadcrumbs, at worse it’s baiting.
Three times Disney has pushed headlines about how they have the first ever LGBT rep in such and such and there’s one thing all three characters have in common. No. Emotional. Connection.
Lefou was the first strike. One of the Russo Brothers in Avengers Endgame was the second strike. The Star Wars LGBT was a couple we didn’t know anything about including their names.
LGBT people deserve better then this.
Disney said no to Finn and Poe romance which would have been history making, organic, and served an emotional connection. Oscar Isaac pushed for it and Disney said no.
High School Musical The Series on Disney Plus was promoted as not only having a LGBT character but also an LGBT couple. You wouldn’t know about any of that if you watch the show. I don’t watch it but based on what people I know that do watch it, the LGBT representation is practically non-existent. The couple in question is also well known for getting their scenes cut from the episodes. And they have never kissed even though the straight couple had an intense make out session in the season finale but that’s appropriate for kids apparently.
Disney pushed a headline about two LGBT shows that were on the way to the network. One about four gay Dads and another which was the Love Simon sequel, Love Victor. The Four Gay Dads show got cancelled by Disney while Love Victor has been moved to Hulu for adult content as it’s not appropriate for the network. Three guesses to what that “inappropriate” content is.
Lizzie McGuire revival has been a huge promotion for Disney Plus. It trended the entire day when it was revealed at Disney +, it was the final reveal in their trailer for things coming in 2020 to the network and the video announcing Adam Lamberg returning broke records for views for the network at that point on social media. Hilary Duff made a statement when Love Victor got pushed to Hulu and said that “this sounds familiar”, which obviously suggests that Lizzie is having the same issues Love Victor had with regards to not appropriate for children. Personally a show about a 30 year old is not gonna be something that is geared or relatable to kids. Lizzie McGuire revival was also going to have an LGBT pairing. It was not Lizzie, Gordo, or her family. It was a brand new character that would be a series regular and Lizzie’s neighbor.
It’s safe to say this neighbor was one of the issues Disney had with the show as well.
Disney needs to really start to look at their image because they may not be homophobic but their actions over the last couple of years has really displayed the complete opposite.
What is worse: living in a world where a Lizzie McGuire revival show never existed, or having a revival show conceptualised, written, 2 episodes filmed with the original cast & significant promo created only to have it potentially cancelled before seeing the light of day? </3
