Disney’s “High School Musical” was a record-breaking smash hit throughout the mid-2000s that spawned memes, slumber party karaoke tracks and Zac Efron’s career.If you are even remotely familiar with the franchise, you’ll recognize the name Kenny Ortega, who was the director and choreographer of the three “High School Musical” movies.Recently, Ortega interviewed with Variety after he was listed on the publication’s Power of Pride list.he answered a question that has plagued the “High School Musical” fan base since 2006.“The character of Ryan [played by Lucas Grabeel] in ‘High School Musical,’ Sharpay’s twin brother, we decided he’d probably going to come out in college,” Ortega said.“It was less about coming out and just more about letting his true colors come forward”.While it was never brought up in the series, a lot of fans have speculated over the years that Ryan Evans was not heterosexual.Several people on Twitter called out Ortega for “LGBTQIA+ character revisionism”."If he was gay, they should've made him gay in the show.
This is just bs pandering, trying to score diversity points without doing the hard work".“Retroactively calling a character gay 10 years after the film doesn’t count as LGBTQ inclusion”.But Ortega also addresses this in the Variety interview, saying that the decision was somewhat out of his control.Ortega also mentioned that he considered Disney to be “the most progressive group of people I’ve ever worked with,” but 2006 was a different time
