Disney Pixar’s latest show, “Win or Lose,” set to be released to Disney+ in February, is drawing press after execs reportedly cut a transgender storyline from the series. The series focuses on the Pickles, a co-ed middle school softball team headed to the championship game. The 8-episode show focuses on the perspective of a different character as they prep for the big game, including parents, players, and umpires. Although the transgender character still remains in the series, references to the character’s gender identity were removed, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Disney has been fairly quiet about the decision, releasing a brief statement saying, “When it comes to animated content for a younger audience, we recognize that many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline.”

Chanel Stewart, the transgender actor who was chosen to voice the character in 2020 expressed disappointment at the change. Stewart was 14 years old at the time and responded to a casting call for transgender actors. “I was exactly what they wanted to a T, and that’s why it felt so right. It felt just so right. I immediately asked my mom if I could do it, because I just felt like if I don’t do this, it wouldn’t make sense. You know what I mean?” Stewart recalled. Being chosen for the role, Stewart “wore it as a badge.” Now that references to the character’s gender identity have been removed, Stewart feels “disheartened.” “From the moment I got the script, I was excited to share my journey to help empower other trans youth. I knew this would be a very important conversation. Trans stories matter, and they deserve to be heard,” said Stewart. Stewart’s mother Keisha shared similar sentiments. “There may be some parents out there who are not ready to have that conversation, but this is the world that we live in, and everyone should be represented,” she said. “Everyone deserves to be recognized. And it felt like it was just another setback for the LGBTQ community because it’s very hard on transgender teenagers … transgender people, period.”

It was revealed earlier this year that Disney Pixar execs stressed making the studio’s big hit, Inside Out 2, “less gay” prior to the film’s release. Former employees claimed the studio blamed the massive failure of Lightyear on a gay storyline and wanted to shift away from that focus, with the studio needing Inside Out 2 to be a big hit. “Mind you, Riley is not canonically gay. In the film, what you saw, nothing about Riley says that she is gay, but it is kind of inferred based on certain contexts. And so that is something that they tried to play down at multiple points,” said one source. The film would go on to earn over $1 billion at the box office, sans any references to Riley’s sexuality.

The move to withdraw the gender identity references in “Win or Lose” was seen as a big win by conservatives, with Libs of TikTok, which often calls out schools and media for pushing gender identity on young people, featuring the story on X. “Is [Disney] finally realizing that if you go woke, you go broke?” the account asked. Another user asked, “Why was there a transgender storyline in a children’s animated movie in the first place? Disney keeps digging their own grave.” Zero Hedge’s Tyler Durden celebrated the move as a victory. “This is quite a change from Disney’s position a few years ago when creators joked about implanting as much queer propaganda as they could get away with.  Disney’s war on parental rights in Florida is now regarded as the moment the company nearly self-destructed,” he wrote. “In content for kids, trans stories really don’t need or deserve to be heard.  The attempt to normalize what amounts to a political movement to sexually confuse and sterilize children will likely be regarded in the future as one of the darkest chapters in human history,” he added. Although acknowledging there were still many projects containing gender ideology aimed at children, he called the move “a good start.”