An Alabama theatre owner is banning Beauty and the Beast because he doesn't want to expose his customers to the new gay character in the film.

Earlier this week, director Bill Condon revealed that the character of LeFou, played in the film by Josh Gad, would have an “exclusively gay moment” involving Gaston, who he idolises.

“LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston,” Condon told Attitude Magazine. “He’s confused about what he wants. It’s somebody who’s just realizing that he has these feelings. And Josh makes something really subtle and delicious out of it. And that’s what has its payoff at the end, which I don’t want to give away. But it is a nice, exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie.”

The Henagar Drive-In Theatre announced its decision to cancel all screenings of the Disney film on Facebook today.

The post read: “For those that do not know ‘Beauty and the Beast’ is ‘premiering’ their first homosexual character. The producer also says at the end of the movie ‘there will be a surprise for same-sex couples.’ If we can not take our 11 year old grand daughter and 8 year old grandson to see a movie we have no business watching it.”

It continued: “If I can’t sit through a movie with God or Jesus sitting by me then we have no business showing it. I know there will be some that do not agree with this decision. That’s fine. We are first and foremost Christians. We will not compromise on what the Bible teaches. We will continue to show family oriented films so you can feel free to come watch wholesome movies without worrying about sex, nudity, homosexuality and foul language. Thank you for your support!”

The film is released in Irish theatres on March 17th.