If you are old enough, you were possibly one of the nine million people who tuned in to watch British TV’s first pre-watershed lesbian kiss in Brookside.
That one kiss between the soap’s Beth Jordache and Margaret Clemence seems so tame now but it was a historic moment, both celebrated and condemned.
The kiss was later screened to a TV audience of billions when a clip of it was included in the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Satisfyingly, it was screened live to 76 countries where same-sex relationships were still illegal and where loving your own gender can mean imprisonment, assault and torture.
A decade on from the Olympic moment and Pixar’s animation Lightyear has been banned in 14 countries over a fleeting same-sex kiss scene between two female characters.
Disney has been unable to secure the release of Lightyear in a number of Middle Eastern and Asian countries, including Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Kuwait, Egypt, Indonesia, and Malaysia, with China likely to follow.
Before we judge these “backward” nations, it is worth noting the kiss was actually cut from the film by US Disney-owned Pixar until the staff created such a furore that the scene had to be re-inserted.
A letter from a group of employees of Pixar claimed Disney executives have “barred” moments of gay affection from films before they are released.
Ironically, kids will not care a jot. Youngsters I know find it bizarre that anyone ever felt compelled to be in the closet and consider it utterly backward that Scotland only made homosexuality among men legal in 1980.
But cast your eye across Twitter and there are sadly plenty of parents who say they will not be “corrupting” their children by allowing them to watch Lightyear.
The reasoned argument of one enlightened parent went: “Well, Disney can go straight to hell because my family will be banning it also. Putting gay c**p in kids movies is the height of immorality and perversion.”
It is safe to assume that Walt Disney’s alleged Nazi leanings had already guaranteed his place in hell and the studio has been careful to keep the morality police happy for far too long.
Given Disney’s enormous influence over children, it is disappointing how reticent it has been to use its platform to promote social progress.
It took until 2017 for Beauty and the Beast to feature the first interracial kiss in a Disney live action film, between the piano Cadenza and Madame de Garderobe, the wardrobe.
Yep, sexy.
In the same film Disney proclaimed it was featuring its first gay character, LeFou, but it’s actually only a glimpse of him dancing in a group with another man.
Disney has missed so many opportunities to break down barriers and has always been more concerned about revenue than revolutionising thinking.
It seems ridiculous that something as innocuous as a gay kiss can still cause consternation but it does.
Only last year Cadbury’s aired an advert that featured a gay couple kissing and caused as much of a sensation had they announced putting bird droppings in their chocolate.
It showed a man biting a Creme Egg in the mouth of his male partner, which was only disturbing on the grounds one should never share chocolate.
And this week Australian newspaper columnist Andrew Hornery was forced to apologise after being accused of trying to out the actor Rebel Wilson.
Hornery had emailed Wilson’s management team last Thursday, saying he knew Wilson was in a relationship with the fashion designer Ramona Agruma and giving a deadline of two days to respond.
Wilson was effectively forced to out herself by posting about her new girlfriend on Instagram.
Coming out or not should have been entirely her choice and it really shouldn’t matter.
That it still does, means it will take more than a cartoon snog for the LGBTQ fight to be won.
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