In what he’s described as “singin’ s—,” rapper Snoop Dogg has stirred up a new firestorm of controversy over LGBTQ+ representation in children’s media. Appearing on the It’s Giving podcast last week, the hip-hop star expressed confusion and embarrassment over the depiction of a same-sex relationship in Pixar’s Lightyear, saying he was forced to explain it to his grandson.

Released in June 2022, Lightyear is a spinoff of Pixar’s Toy Story franchise. It attracted early notice for introducing a female character in a same-sex relationship, with the pair sharing a quick kiss on screen. The moment was later cut from the film following complaints, but Disney added it back in after internal criticism and vocal demand for the studio to support LGBTQ+ inclusion.

On the podcast, Snoop shared the story of bringing his grandson to the theater to see Lightyear. He was happily surprised to see his grandchild was “diggin’ the movie,” when he was asked a question he wasn’t prepared to answer.

The rapper said the boy piped up during the film to ask Snoop how two women can have a child together. “Why, my grandson in the middle of the movie, like, ‘Papa Snoop, how does she have a baby with a woman? She is a woman,” Snoop recalled on the podcast. “Oh s—, I didn’t come in for this s—. I just came to watch the g—— movie.”

Snoop said he was left without a response for the young boy. “They just said she had a baby. They are both women. How does she have a baby? S—. The movie ain’t over with,” he continued. “I’m scared to go to the movies. Like y’all throwing me in the middle of s— that I don’t have an answer for.”

When speaking with the podcast host, Snoop doubled down on his initial reaction. He said it’s not that he was “homophobic” or “against” the LGBTQ+ content. Rather, the rapper felt disoriented by a child’s question about such a sensitive and complicated issue.

“You have to understand what we went through,” Snoop said. “It threw me for a loop. Because these are kids that we have to show that at this age, like, they’re going to ask questions. They are going to ask. I don’t have an answer. And I was just there to go to sleep and watch the movie. That s— woke me up.”

It remains to be seen if his comments will have any lasting impact on Snoop’s career or image internationally. However, the rapper’s appearance at the AFL Grand Final in Australia later this year has been met with predictable fury online from progressive audiences. According to PinkNews, the decision to retain Snoop as a performer at the event was defended by AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan. So far, there’s been no official comment from the league that the rapper’s gig would be canceled or changed.

Lightyear Featured a Same-Sex Kiss, and a Row Over the Pixar Film Surged

Snoop Dogg was far from the first person to speak out over the same-sex content in Lightyear. At the time of the film’s release in June 2022, conservatives had already weighed in to criticize the scene.

Buzz Lightyear actor Chris Evans defended the creative decision at the time. He was in conversation with a Reuters Television reporter, who asked him about the film’s gay moment. “The real truth is those people are idiots,” Evans said of the backlash to Lightyear’s LGBTQ+ representation. “There’s always going to be people who are afraid and unaware and trying to hold on to what was before. But those people die off like dinosaurs. I think the goal is to pay them no mind, march forward, and embrace the growth that makes us human.”

Disney has come out in support of LGBTQ+ visibility in media in recent years, even creating marketing campaigns around it. Disney’s “Show Us How You Care” commercials have prominently displayed families of diverse sexual and gender identities, to positive effect in some cases. It’s part of a strategy to show inclusion and diversity in its offerings.

Lightyear itself was a high-profile new installment in the Toy Story universe from Pixar. The action-fantasy spinoff was marketed heavily when it arrived in theaters. The film was a reimagining of the real Buzz Lightyear, the space-age sci-fi hero whose image in the fictional Toy Story world inspired the toy Buzz Lightyear.

The movie is the first in the franchise to feature an LGBTQ+ character. Snoop Dogg and his grandson aren’t the first parent and child to come away from the film confused by the character’s introduction. The actor whose voice is being used to represent the character in real life has since said critics of the film’s move are “idiots.”

The film, however, failed to live up to the hype for Pixar. It grossed just over $226 million worldwide against production costs of about $200 million. Lightyear underperformed compared to the critical and commercial success of previous franchise installments. Critics argued that the narrative device of repositioning the character as real and not toy-based worked poorly in its storytelling.