Fresh controversy is brewing around rapper Snoop Dogg, who has given another interview in which he targets LGBTQ+ themes and characters in children’s movies. In comments that appear to have been re-shared widely this week, the hip-hop star said he took his grandson to watch Pixar’s 2022 movie Lightyear and felt thrown by the movie’s inclusion of a same-sex couple.

Appearing on Sarah Fontenot’s It’s Giving podcast last week, Snoop Dogg said he took his grandson to see the space-themed family movie, in which the title character has an on-screen relationship with a woman. The rapper, who had “big dreams of taking my grandson to the movie and sleeping,” said he was thrown by the inclusion of the character and same-sex relationship.

Lightyear, a spinoff of Pixar’s Toy Story animated film series, attracted criticism for the character’s same-sex relationship and a brief on-screen kiss between her and another female character. The scene was eventually restored by Disney after Pixar employees and LGBTQ+ groups complained, and the studio later doubled down on its decision to include the same-sex relationship.

“I don’t know, I swear to God, why my grandson in the middle of the movie, like, ‘Papa Snoop, how does she have a baby with a woman? She is a woman,” Snoop Dogg said on the podcast. “Oh s—, I didn’t come in for this s—. I just came to watch the g—— movie.”

The rapper admitted to not having any information at hand to explain to his grandson, and told him to “keep watching” during the film. “They just said she had a baby. They are both women. How does she have a baby? S—. The movie ain’t over with,” he continued. “I’m scared to go to the movies. Like y’all throwing me in the middle of s— that I don’t have an answer for.”

Snoop Dogg said the part of the experience that upset him was the instinct of children to ask questions about characters and storylines that might still be outside their experience. “It threw me for a loop,” the rapper said. “These are kids that we have to show that at this age, like, they’re going to ask questions. They are going to ask. I don’t have an answer. And I was just there to go to sleep and watch the movie. That s— woke me up.”

Criticism and the Context of the Moment

The rapper’s comments caused backlash this week among progressive audiences online, as the artist is due to appear as the headline act at the Australian Football League’s (AFL) Grand Final in late September. Reporting on the uproar, PinkNews noted that AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said Snoop Dogg would not be removed from the Grand Final program despite his recent podcast comments.

The AFL, which has backed LGBTQ+ inclusion and diversity initiatives in the past, has not provided any sign that Snoop Dogg’s appearance will be rescinded. In recent years, the league has created a Pride jersey and backed inclusive youth policies at the club level, including accepting same-sex change rooms for teams in the 2020 season.

This is not the first time that Lightyear has found itself at the center of controversy. The film, which was released in June 2022, immediately drew ire from conservative voices who criticized the same-sex relationship and kiss for being inappropriate for a family movie. The level of attention that Disney and Pixar received over the on-screen relationship was such that the film’s producers removed the scene and then restored it.

Chris Evans, the actor who voices Buzz Lightyear in the animated film, defended the inclusion of the moment at the time in an interview with Reuters Television. “The real truth is those people are idiots,” Evans said in response to questions about the reaction to the LGBTQ+ moment. “There’s always going to be people who are afraid and unaware and trying to hold on to what was before. But those people die off like dinosaurs. I think the goal is to pay them no mind, march forward, and embrace the growth that makes us human.”

Lightyear, which was a box-office disappointment despite being set in the Toy Story universe, centers on the “real” Buzz Lightyear, the heroic and rugged space adventurer who, in the Pixar franchise, inspired the toy action figure in the Toy Story franchise. Disney had sought to spin off the title character in his own action-adventure, but the film failed to take off with audiences and critics despite its connections to Toy Story and heavy marketing.

Snoop Dogg’s Controversy Doesn’t End Here

It’s unclear what the impact of Snoop Dogg’s latest comments will be on the hip-hop star and his upcoming performances in Australia and elsewhere, but they have added yet another salvo in his recent critiques of progressive ideas and initiatives.

Snoop Dogg, who has recently spoken out against the woke movement and challenged how people use the term, said at the time that he aimed for the character and the inclusion because he felt blindsided by it in the family movie. The rapper, who is part of the AFL Grand Final festivities despite the comments and reactions, is not known to have retracted his latest statements or offered an apology for how he framed the subject.