Saudi Arabia has asked Disney to edit out “LGBTQ references” from its latest Marvel film, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse Madness”,  before it gets screened in the kingdom, an official informed AFP on Monday.

The said scene amount to “barely 12 seconds” where a lesbian character, America Chavez, refers to her “two moms”, as told by Saudi Arabia general supervisor of cinema classification, Nawaf Alsabhan.

“It’s just her talking about her moms, because she has two moms. And being in the Middle East, it’s very tough to pass something like this,” Alsabhan continued.

Alsabhan added that they have sent it to the distributor and the said recipient sent it to Disney, and that Disney has told them they were not willing to make the requested changes.

There had been news that the film had been banned.

“It’s never banned. It will never be banned. There’s no reason to ban the film. It’s simple edit… So far they have refused . But we haven’t closed the door. We’re still trying,” Alsabhan furthered.

Saudi Arabia has already lifted a decades-long ban across all cinemas in late 2017, which was part of the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s social reforms.

Homosexuality is considered a potential offence in Saudi Arabia as they are known for their strict heeding of Islamic sharia law, the basis of its entire judicial system.

“Doctore Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” is not the first to run into some complications in Saudi Arabia. The “Eternals” film also went into similar situation when they featured a gay couple, which pushed countries including Saudi Arabia to prompt edit requests.

Photo By: cbr.com