Disney's Frozen remains the highest grossing animated movie of all time, spawning two cinematic shorts, Oscar wins, an upcoming sequel and quite possibly the most played theme song to date. But did you know that 'Let It Go’ is considered a gay anthem, as a metaphor for coming out? In addition to its already iconic status, Frozen could be the first animation in the studio’s history to feature a gay main character, if the director and voice actors’ words are anything to go on.
The blizzard of a blockbuster broke boundaries with its disregard of fairy-tale tradition when the ‘act of true love’ cliché wasn’t performed by ‘the prince’ of the story, instead the day was saved by the leading female characters – Anna and Elsa – and their love as sisters. Many of those in or supporting of the LGBT+ community found a flurry of hope in the independent and "feminist" dubbed queen, even thinking of her potential as a gay character.
With no aspects of heterosexuality thought to be depicted or implied for Elsa in the 2013 feature, many interpreted her character's themes to be symbolic of homosexual identity; her personality traits alike to lesbian and bisexual girls who identified with her struggles, before coming out. This lead to a lot of open-minded fans developing a hopeful theory that would later become a web-wide debate – the (perhaps not so impossible) idea of a "gay Elsa".
The intensity of the craze snowballed from there, with the announcement of the movie's 2019 sequel, since it was now possible; there was a feasible opportunity. It avalanched with a simple tweet from Twitter user, @lexi4prez, voicing her hope for Disney to depict Elsa as gay, imagining how iconic such a milestone would be. She followed up with a relating post, initiating the now iconic hashtag:
Sisters, Jaime and Gillian O'Connor, adore Frozen for more reasons than one – not only do they think that they fill the shoes of sisters Elsa and Anna, but Jaime (the 'Elsa’) is gay herself, making the online campaign hit even closer to home. #GiveElsaAGirlfriend was met with both supporting responses and mass outrage. Yet the hysteria – whether in favour of or opposed to – congregated itself on being in the best interest of "the children". As mothers themselves, Jaime and Gillian speak about what having an ‘out’ Elsa would mean to them, as well as their kids.
"It would have meant everything for me to have a point of reference," Jaime admits, imagining how significant representation like this would have been for her at a young age. Growing up in the 80s and within a relatively closed Irish Catholic community, it was hard for her to feel “normal” when it came to her sexual and romantic identity.
“There was nothing in media; there were no 'poster girls' – there was no one I could relate to or seek acceptance from, there was nothing for me then really.”
She had a hard time thinking of examples of same-sex relationships in film and TV through her adolescence, going on to eagerly discuss a moment of huge significance for her, that stood out in her memory from her teenage years – the first lesbian kiss (pre-watershed), aired on the Channel 4 show, Brookside. “I remember that because it was so pivotal for me, thinking back to how these things effect you,” she said. “At that stage, the tiniest clip on national TV was enough to make me feel… validated. You need to feel validated sometimes.”
With teary eyes and looking to sister Gillian smiling in support, she fidgets with the Elsa figure. “I can relate to how that felt, just to see something that didn’t make me feel so… weird,” she said. She begins to imagine how she would have felt seeing a leading gay Disney character at a younger age and choked up a little, saying: “It would have been really good for me, it wouldn’t have been so scary then.”
Gillian chirps in, in support: “It’s children that need to find it normal. It’s not the older people; it’s not the 15-18 films. It is the universal films.”
Knowing that the biggest argument against the #GiveElsaAGirlfriend campaign is that children shouldn’t be allowed to see same-sex relationships on-screen, Jaime and Gillian stress that it is actually the kids who need them most of all.
“You need people from a younger age to see because it’s all about learnt behaviour,” Jaime explains. “What you find acceptable, it starts at a young age. If people accept it on that level, you just grow up thinking it is normal – that there’s a Disney princess who loves another lady, and love is love… And that’s fine, and it’s good, and they’re just like everybody else.”
"It already starts to instil that normality from an early age, and it’s not 'corrupting'."
“I think that’s what people are scared of, aren’t they? That you’re going to 'make' them gay,” Gillian said.
“They think it will 'glamourise' it,” Jaime added.
“You don’t 'make' people straight – you are what you are,” Gillian argues. “If that’s the logic that you’re going to be 'made' a way, then there would be no-one other than the stereotype everyone wants people to be.”
Gillian mentions how brave it would be for Disney to actually feature Elsa as gay in the upcoming sequel, especially with the amount of backlash they would most likely receive. “It would be such a massive step in the right direction for so many people,” she said.
She talks about how many kids who are gay or struggling to understand why they are different would be able to take inspiration from the fictional idols that they look up to, like Queen Elsa. Jaime agrees, her own words resonating with her:
“And maybe a little girl at 12 is sitting there, thinking that she’s really different and that people won’t love her. And then how much it would mean for somebody to be up there, saying 'you know what, it’s alright'.”
Going back to the sisterly theme of Frozen and the bond they themselves share, Jaime turns to Gillian to ask what her thoughts and feelings were when she came out to her 20 years ago. “On a sister level, what was that like?” Jaime asks.
Gillian responded, grinning: “Do you remember the day? I remember the day so clearly!”
Jaime becomes emotional again, smiling at her sister. “And the feeling of acceptance straight away,” she said.
Gillian recalls the memory, explaining how Jaime was in the process of buying a house, so she and her son had to temporarily move in [with Gillian] beforehand. At this time, Jaime was secretly seeing a woman and finally felt it was time to admit to her sister.
Gillian re-enacts the conversation, starting with Jaime informing her that she had something to tell her and laughing when she excitedly assumed that her sister was pregnant again, with Jaime jokingly told her she couldn’t be further away from it. Without hesitation, Gillian said: “Oh, you’re gay.” Jaime was taken back and worriedly asked her if she was okay with it, to which Gillian responded:
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
The memory was enough to make both sisters teary-eyed. “That feeling of one of your closest people accepting you – straight off, no questions,” Jaime said. Gillian rubs her sister’s arm in comfort. “Because it didn’t matter,” she tells her.
“There are so many whose families just don’t accept them and they don’t receive that kind of validation that it’s okay,” Jaime said. “And imagine all those people that don’t accept their children – or their brothers/sisters – and the life they have to live without their family… Because family is everything; when you’ve got them accepting you, it’s half of the work done to still try and accept yourself.”
Discussing how Disney might tackle the issue, should they do it, Jaime said:
"I think what will be wonderful is if Disney do it just from the angle of ‘love is love’. Oh, and still focus on the sister – the family acceptance. It’s not 'pushing an agenda', not trying to be 'controversial' and 'out there', it’s just to normalise it a little bit more."
"There's no textbook for this kind of thing!"
Jaime talked about her raising her son, whilst closeted and once out.
"He didn't have a point of reference and I think that's why we need something else to relate it to."
