Well, at least that’s what some on the religious right seem to think, and to be totally honest, if you are the sort of person who thinks everything is a plot by a gay cabal to destroy the world, you can see why they might take it that way. In the movie, there’s a running joke about Robin thinking he has two dads – not knowing Batman and Bruce Wayne are the same person, he’s convinced they have joint custody. Robin is also in love with his sparkly cape, while there’s a slightly homoerotic air to the rivalry between Batman and Robin, leading to a scene played out like the culmination of a romance, but in reverse.
Of course, while all presented quite innocently and likely to go over the heads of most of the audience, some on the religious right are horrified. Life Site News is apoplectic from the outset, titling the piece, “BEWARE: LEGO Batman Movie Promotes Gay Adoption’. They write of the movie, ‘It was chock full of pro-gay propaganda. Think the sexual innuendo of the Flintstones minus the real humor. It seemed the creators were so anxious to subtly indoctrinate the little ones into the gender ideology that making it humorous came as a distant second thought.’
PJMedia also got a little concerned, writing that it’s ‘orphan adoption by two dads, homoerotic attraction, and penis jokes’. They add, ‘Few parents and fewer kids will question any of it, because there’s a way to interpret all of it as technically innocent. That’s what makes these messages subliminal (and potentially powerful). LEGO Batman makes them seem plain as vanilla and American as apple pie.’
It is odd in reading these pieces, how horrified they can sound (particularly LifeSiteNews, where you half expect the reviewer to suggest the movie is one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse) about things that sound perfectly reasonable or innocuous to most people. While we can’t disagree that there is more than a tinge of LGBT in The LEGO Batman Movie, it really ought to be applauded rather than decried.
Finlay says
it’s the LeGo BaTman movie after all :)))