A lesbian kiss portrayed in the new Star Wars movie, “The Rise of Skywalker,” has been cut from the Singaporean version to adhere to the country’s film rating laws, according to reports.
Singapore’s media regulatory body said Disney scrubbed the scene to avoid the film being given a higher age rating than it’s current PG-13 in the Asian city-state, the Guardian reported.
“The applicant has omitted a brief scene which under the film classification guidelines would require a higher rating,” a spokesperson from Infocomm Media Development Authority said, according to the report.
Sex between two men is illegal and punishable with two years in prison Singapore, while there is no law regarding sex between women.
Films featuring LGBT themes are restricted to viewers aged 18 and above and are subject to heavy regulation. One state-owned broadcaster was fined for airing a program which showed a gay couple with their adopted baby, the Guardian reported in 2008.
The fleeting kiss at the end of the film between the two minor Star Wars characters — the first same-sex kiss in the franchise’s history — was praised by queer media who wrote that the kiss was “good news to LGBTQ Star Wars fans who have spent 40 years longing to see themselves represented on screen.”
“Still, a bit of queer inclusion is always welcome, and the Star Wars kiss doesn’t feel quite so insulting or condescending as the inclusion of a bit part in another Disney film, Avengers: Endgame,” website Queerty wrote earlier this month.
But other media said the kiss was “a step back,” The Hollywood Reporter claiming that the moment “perpetuates the idea that small amounts of representation are sufficient.”
In an interview during the film’s press tour, director J.J. Abrams explained his decision to include the moment.
“In the case of the LGBTQ community, it was important to me that people who go see this movie feel they’re being represented in this film,” Abrams told Variety.
The film itself has received mixed reviews, dividing Star Wars fans over its confusing plot and so-so ending.
