After pressure to ban Disney’s live-action take on Beauty and the Beast over a minor gay character, the film will instead be released with a 16+ rating.

The family movie, starring Emma Watson, will be given the restricted certificate to prevent children from watching because of the studio’s first “exclusively gay moment” involving a character played by Josh Gad.

Certification in Russia is decided by the ministry of culture. Last week ruling party MP Vitaly Milonov called for a ban, referring to the film’s content as “perverted sexual relations” that would be in direct opposition to a Russian law that cracks down on “gay propaganda against minors”.

“I’m convinced that the main task of the state regarding children is to protect childhood and youth from the filthiness of the world, to preserve children’s purity, to block our children off from harmful and dangerous phenomena,” he said. “And in this case, our shared task is to not allow the release of this musical on the screen under any guise.”

Last week it was revealed by the film’s director, Bill Condon, that the character of LeFou, played by Gad, would be gay and this would be confirmed at the end after he spends the film pining for his friend Gaston, played by Luke Evans.

“It’s somebody who’s just realising that he has these feelings,” he said. “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 film has also been taken off the schedule by an Alabama cinema because of the scene. Since making the announcement, their Facebook page has been flooded with complaints and has now been taken down.

Beauty and the Beast is on track to make $120m on its opening weekend in the US alone.