Lauren Gunderson, one of the writers for the 2022 animated feature Lightyear from Pixar Animation Studios, has spoken out about her process creating the lesbian couple seen in the film — a reaction that follows the headline-making homophobic remarks from Snoop Dogg after seeing the film with his grandson.
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In a few Threads posts, Gunderson not only identified herself as the creator of the lesbian couple that appears for a few seconds in Lightyear, but also shared details about her process working on the Pixar movie centered around the Toy Story character Buzz Lightyear.
"So. I created the LIGHTYEAR lesbians.
In 2018, I was a writer at Pixar — such a cool place, grateful to work there, learned a ton from kind and impressive creatives.
As we wrote early versions of what became LIGHTYEAR, a key character needed a partner, and it was so natural to write 'she' instead of 'he.' As small as that detail is in the film, I knew the representational effect it could have. Small line, big deal. I was elated that they kept it."
"I'm proud of it. To infinity," Gunderson added. "Love is love."
Lauren Gunderson via Threads.
Threads (@lalatellsastory)
Gunderson also shared a follow-up post that read:
"I was one of a few writers they had on it over the years, which is very common for screenwriting of course.
I had very little to do with the final script. But I was proud to see a happy queer couple (even for a few seconds) onscreen. I know they got a lot of shit for this inclusion, but stuff like this matters because beautiful love like this exists. It's *not* fiction.
What IS fiction is Zurg and lightspeed space travel and murderous aliens and a talking robot cat (long live Sox)."
Lauren Gunderson via Threads.
Threads (@lalatellsastory)
The writer didn't end there, either. A few hours later, Gunderson re-shared a post from the Human Rights Campaign that included the lesbian couple of Lightyear with the sentence, "Our stories are not 'scary.'"
Gunderson added, "I wrote the LIGHTYEAR lesbians! So proud!"
Lauren Gunderson via Threads.
Threads (@lalatellsastory)
As of this writing, Gunderson's Threads posts are not showing for some users.
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Lightyear is streaming on Disney+.
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