Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is livid that China has censored homosexuality from American movies.
In an interview on Fox News, Cruz revealed that he is sponsoring new legislation to punish Hollywood studios who cooperate with Chinese censorship requirements.
"One of your bills is called the Script Act," Fox News host Maria Bartiromo announced. "[Chinese officials] have really bullied Hollywood and Hollywood producers roll over about it. You've mentioned a couple of films before Top Gun, Bohemian Rhapsody."
"It really is tragic that Hollywood has been willing to, over and over again, to kowtow to Chinese communists and let the Chinese government censor American movies," Cruz opined.
Referring to a character in Top Gun, the senator complained: "We're saying Maverick is afraid of the damn Chinese communists."
"And Bohemian Rhapsody!" Bartiromo interrupted. "The Chinese communist government wanted them to edit out part when [Freddie Mercury] was gay? How do you tell the story of Bohemian Rhapsody and not say that Freddie was gay?"
"You don't," Cruz insisted. "But Hollywood was more than happy to edit the scene out. They did it because the Chinese government didn't want to acknowledge that Freddy Mercury was homosexual. Look, that's a huge part of the story!"
"The problem is Hollywood is more interested in making millions of dollars from the Chinese market than they are in free speech, than they are in artistic integrity," the senator added.
Under Cruz's legislation, Hollywood studios would not be allowed to use military equipment in their movies unless they stopped allowing censorship in China. It was not immediately clear why Cruz believes that a pandemic is the best time to launch his anti-China bill.
