It is a PinkNews tradition to run an April Fools’ day article, and this year we broke the “news” that Simba would be gay in upcoming live-action Lion King remake.

In the story, we wrote that Simba realises that he is gay during his teenage years after chancing upon same-sex couple Timon and Pumbaa in the wilderness.

In order to accommodate the new plot, Simba’s childhood friend and eventual girlfriend Nala has been replaced with the male lion Naji.

The film was also set to be released on June the 31st.

Despite the obvious signs that the story was a joke for April Fools, #Simba ended up trending on Twitter in the US and hundreds of people tweeted about the story.

Although written with good intentions, a lot of people spoke negatively about the story and some made homophobic comments.

Some insinuated that because the lion cub was gay, it meant he was not masculine enough to be “king”.

Others could not understand why Nala would be given up for Naji…

While others commented on Simba’s chance to have kids

Many were just outright homophobic

Many shared an animated gif of the young Simba being thrown off a cliff edge.

Luckily a few people stood against the homophobes.

Last year, bigots got very angry about another perceived gay lion



A reminder of how lions going “two by two” into Noah’s Ark in the Bible often look.

One Twitter user went further and wrote a blog about how awful it would be if Simba was gay.

“I recently heard that in the new Lion King film(to be released this year, A.D. 2017) Simba will be gay,” they began. “I am so not going to watch a version of The Lion King influenced by LGBTs.

“My personal hatred for homosexuality(I do not hate gay people- I love all equally, but it is what they do that I sometimes do not like) comes from the Biblical and Christian detesting of homosexuality. Although homosexuality has been observed in many animal species, the homosexual tendencies of all living creatures came from the sin of Adam and Eve(both are responsible for sin in humankind).

“Sin damaged the naturally intended plan of God for the earth and all the living things in it. Sin even brought about thorns and briars! Because of this, even sexuality of humans became damaged- if people can be gay/lesbian, then why did God make us male and female?

“And now the Disney folks are making Simba gay? Whoa. To do this, they made his love interest a male lion presumably named Naji, thus replacing Nala. I feel so sorry for The Lion King now. Why, oh why, Disney?

“All users who will try to “scientifically” and “logically” prove that being gay is alright and even a good thing will be blocked by me. I do not need to hear what people think about this, because God detests homosexuality(not homosexuals, per se) and I share His opinion in all matters.

“Also, lions are not gay. There are no gay lions, even though there are other animals(humans especially) which show homosexual behaviour. It is, according to natural biology of these animals, for Simba to be gay. The Lion King may be taking anthropomorphism too far.”

After seeing sense they revealed that they are not fans of April Fools Day: “UPDATE: I recently did some surfing in [sic] the Internet and the chances that the above info about Simba being gay are almost zero. The report may be by a probability of 91% be an April Fool’s Joke. And I think, by nature, April Fool’s is apathetic. What human being finds joy in another’s stupidity?”