Definition: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Input: When audiences flock to Beauty and the Beast this month, they will be presented with Disney’s first out gay character in the form of Gaston’s lovestruck manservant LeFou. But Disney, and particularly Beauty and the Beast, has technically already had its first gay hero – a pioneering spirit whose work resulted in some of the Mouse House's most beloved songs, and whose personal tragedy left a mark on numerous Disney classics. His name was Howard Ashman. 
  
 For many Disney fans, their first awareness of Ashman’s name was a sad one – a tribute to his legacy that appears on screen at the very end of the original Beauty and the Beast. "To our friend, Howard, who gave a mermaid her voice, and a beast his soul," it reads. The dedication refers to Ashman’s two most famous collaborations with the corporation, in which he wrote the lyrics for both The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, along with several tracks for Aladdin and Oliver & Company. ||||| LOS ANGELES — Sorry, Elsa is not a lesbian. But what about a gay LeFou? 
  
 Keeping pace with fast-changing cultural and societal mores — particularly regarding sexuality — has been challenging for Walt Disney Studios. More than most of its Hollywood rivals, Disney aims films at a broader audience, from preschoolers to grandparents. Disney also specializes in that most archetypical of storytelling genres: fairy tales. 
  
 Disney executives blanched last year, when a movement materialized online to demand that Elsa, the independent, prince-free princess from “Frozen,” be given a girlfriend in the coming sequel. But Disney does not want to be stuck in the past, either. And so it seems to have tiptoed toward open homosexuality in its new live-action version of “Beauty and the Beast.” 
  
 Bill Condon, who directed the film, and is openly gay, told the British magazine Attitude that the manservant LeFou, played by Josh Gad, has “a nice, exclusively gay moment” in the movie, which has its premiere here on Thursday and arrives in theaters in the United States on March 17. 
  
 Mr. Condon continued: “LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston. He’s confused about what he wants. It’s somebody who’s just realizing that he has these feelings.” ||||| Disney’s live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast has quickly become one of the most eagerly anticipated movies in history, smashing records when its first trailer racked up more than 127 million views in just 24 hours last November. 
  
 While the reimagined romantic classic, featuring Emma Watson and former Downton Abbey star Dan Stevens, might seem like the ultimate celebration of heterosexual love, it’s actually harbouring a treasure trove of gay secrets – and is set to make history with Disney’s first ever “exclusively gay moment” on film. 
  
 As Emma and Dan sit down with Attitude for our brand new April issue – available to download now and in shops today (March 1) – director Bill Condon reveals the heartbreaking true story that helped shape the 1991 film, and how it inspired him to create a character who would break new ground when it comes to LGBT visibility on screen. 
  
 Played by US actor Josh Gad, the character of LeFou serves as the sidekick to the film’s primary antagonist Gaston (Luke Evans), and is set to feature in a small but significant subplot of his own when it comes to his sexuality. 
  
 “LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston,” reveals Condon. 
  
 “He’s confused about what he wants. It’s somebody who’s just realising that he has these feelings. 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.” 
  
 As Attitude’s April issue arrives on newsstands and the world prepares for Beauty and the Beast to hit screens on March 17, Attitude editor-in-chief Matt Cain has welcomed the news as a landmark moment for LGBT representation. 
  
 “It may have been a long time coming but this is a watershed moment for Disney,” he says. 
  
 “By representing same-sex attraction in this short but explicitly gay scene, the studio is sending out a message that this is normal and natural – and this is a message that will be heard in every country of the world, even countries where it’s still socially unacceptable or even illegal to be gay. 
  
 Matt adds: “It’s only a first step towards creating a cinematic world that reflects the one in which many of us are now proud to live. But it’s a step in the right direction and I applaud Disney for being brave enough to make it – and in doing so hopefully helping to change attitudes and bring about real social progress.” 
  
 The new issue of Attitude also sees the film’s leads Emma Watson and Dan Stevens discuss the underlying queer sensibility which helped make 1991’s cartoon iteration of Beauty and the Beast resonate so profoundly with many gay men. 
  
 “I think it was really important for Dan and I to develop and understand why each of our characters feel as if they don’t fit in,” says Emma. 
  
 “I certainly felt watching the original that I wanted to know more about why Belle feels that she’s different and why she wants to be different and why she’s naturally different.” 
  
 The April issue of Attitude is out now. To buy in print click here, or subscribe at subscribeme.to/attitude. To buy a digital copy, visit pocketmags.com/attitude. 
  
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 Paul O’Grady recalls the horror of the AIDS crisis in brand new Attitude Heroes podcast ||||| Take a Break! 
  
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Output:
If trailer views are any indication, moviegoers will be flocking to Disney's live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast this month. But they may find the "tale as old as time" isn't quite how they remember it. For one thing, the remake features Disney's first openly gay character—that of LeFou, the sidekick of bad guy Gaston, reports Attitude. Director Bill Condon, who is gay himself, tells the magazine there's "a nice, exclusively gay moment" in the film involving LeFou that he won't divulge. LeFou "one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston," he adds. "It's somebody who's just realizing that he has these feelings." A person who's seen the movie tells the New York Times this "gay moment" is so subtle that viewers may miss it—just as they might've missed possible hints that other Disney characters are gay, including Oaken in Frozen and Timon and Pumbaa in The Lion King, per MoviePilot. But it's not the movie's only gay connection, reports the Telegraph. Beauty and the Beast is dedicated to Howard Ashman, a gay man who wrote song lyrics for the 1991 original before his death from AIDS at age 40, eight months before its release. Producer Don Hahn once said the song "Kill the Beast" is "almost a metaphor" for Ashman's battle "with a debilitating disease, in an era when it was stigmatized."