Is casting Jack Whitehall as a gay Disney character is an act of queer erasure?

‘It’s a queasy thing to witness straight people earning capital and cachet from playing gay.’ Photograph: ITV/The Brit Awards N

Gay people can act straight convincingly, but the reverse is far trickier – just look at Dominic West dancing in the film Pride.

News greets us this week of yet another triumphant milestone for LGBTQ+ rights, with the casting of Disney’s “first openly gay character” (tell that to Ursula from The Little Mermaid), in Jungle Cruise, a film…