Saudi Arabia Bans Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Over Lesbian Character

“Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” is almost here and even though it is likely serving as a strong tether between the films of the MCU and ventures like “WandaVision,” there are some countries that feel their citizens should go without seeing it at home (or at least without a good VPN once the film hits the Disney+ streaming platform). It seems that the government of Saudi Arabia has chosen to ban the film over prominently featuring a character in its story who is known to be a lesbian. Because homosexuality is criminalized in Saudi Arabia, Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness joins a lengthy list of films forbidden in that country that includes the recently released “The Eternals.”

While advanced tickets have been cut off in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, it seems that Marvel fans living within the United Arab Emirates are still able to get their seats ahead of the film’s release date. While some might cry fowl at this situation, one positive way of looking at the situation is that Chavez’s love for women will play too visible a part within the film to be easily edited out like several other films that Disney has released to international markets. While America has had two partners, Lisa Halloran and Ramone Watts, neither one appears on the film’s cast list.

For the uninformed, America Chavez is a Latin-American lesbian character from Marvel Comics who will be played in the MCU by Xochitl Gomez. As far as super-heroic abilities go, Chavez’s list of powers includes flight, super strength, superhuman endurance, the ability to move at nearly the speed of light and, most intriguing to the premise of this film’s subtitle, the ability to roundhouse kick a star-shaped hole through reality. Other star-related feats she has been known to exhibit include punching enemies into star-shaped specks and releasing a massive star-shaped blast that was even known to hurt Captain Marvel. In her time as a hero, she has belonged to the Teen Brigade, Young Avengers, the all-woman team known as A-Force, the Ultimates and the West Coast Avengers.