Christian Group Demands ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ Boycott Over ‘Pushing LGBTQ Agenda’ – IndieWire
“Thor: Love and Thunder” has too much love in it, according to Christian group One Million Moms.
Also known as OMM, the organization launched campaigns to boycott “Thor: Love and Thunder” due to its “blatant LGBTQ content.”
“One Million Moms needs your help to make sure as many people as possible are aware that Marvel Studios is pushing the LGBTQ agenda on families in their newest superhero movie,” the online petition states. “Rated PG-13, ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ includes many LGBTQ innuendos and an abundance of euphemisms, but a few scenes are not downplayed at all.”
The OMM website lists the queer themes in the film as such:
“The alien character named Korg mentions having two dads, and he has hand sex with another member of his species.”
“The bisexual goddess, King Valkyrie, kisses another woman’s hand to show interest.”
“An Asgardian kid insists on going by a gender-neutral name.”
“And the gay romantic tension between Thor and Star-Lord is apparent but played off as a gag.”
OMM has previously boycotted “Toy Story 4” and the live-action “Beauty and the Beast” for having LGBTQ+ characters. Fellow Marvel film “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and animated Disney movie “Lightyear” were both banned in Saudi Arabia for queer storylines.
“Thor: Love and Thunder” star Tessa Thompson, who plays Valkyrie in the franchise, previously told Yahoo! Entertainment that representing Valkyrie’s bisexuality was a “big topic of conversation” with writer/director Taika Waititi.
“I feel really good, personally, about where we got to. I hope that she’s a character that fans continue to connect to, that we have a lot of time to explore her, in all of her humanity,” Thompson said, referencing the Marvel character’s origins. “But whether or not she finds love in this movie doesn’t mean she’s not still a fabulous queer character that is open to finding love when it makes sense.”
Thompson added, “I think rightfully there’s this real want in audiences to see characters be very clearly queer or LGBTQIA+ inside these spaces. And I think it’s hugely important to have representation. And also as humans I think that we are not defined by our sexuality, and by who we love. And so sometimes I think to hang a narrative completely on that is a way of actually diminishing the humanity of the character. Because you don’t allow them to be anything else.”
Co-star Natalie Portman stated that the film was “so gay” while at the London premiere.
Oscar winner Waititi exclusively told IndieWire that sexuality in Marvel films shouldn’t come as a shock to viewers.
“It’s the idea that these things just are, in a Marvel film, in a mainstream film that young, queer people will see,” Waititi explained. “They’ll watch this film and be like, oh, it’s a Thor film about a heterosexual, very Aryan-looking space Viking, but there are other characters in there and it’s normalized. No one bats an eyelid and there’s no monologue about it. Nobody ever stands up and says ‘This is OK!’ It just is OK. I think that’s very important.”
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