A group of young people was able to get a public screening of Greta Gerwigs Barbie shut down in the northeastern suburbs of Paris by allegedly threatening city government staff members while claiming that the movie is gay as well as an attack on the virtue of women.Noisy-le-Sec Mayor Olivier Sarrabeyrouse (French Communist Party, far-left) denounced the ten to fifteen individuals who surrounded the staffers in charge of the Les estivales de Noisy festival, which was going to show the Barbie movie on a large outdoor screen at 9 p.m. on August 8, the French LGBTQ+ magazine Tetu reports. Related Gay men in France are facing wave of attacks after being lured into hook-ups The movie was chosen through a public vote by residents of the city, getting 33 votes out of 214 total votes (the citys population is around 45,000).If you set up the movie, we will tear everything down and end the screening, the young people allegedly told the staffers, saying that the Barbie movie is [a defense] for homosexuality and an attack on the virtue of women. The film does not have any gay characters, but three out LGBTQ+ actors play roles in it. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today The news siteLe Parisienreports that the staffers tried to discuss the matter with the protestors, but eventually felt endangered, so they contacted the mayor. The mayor decided to cancel the screening of the film in order to protect the staff.Its a form of moral censorship, Sarrabeyrouse wrote on Facebook on Monday, August 11, saying that he is filing a complaint against the young people for threatening public officials. These threats were motivated by fallacious arguments that reflect ignorance and fundamentalism, used for political ends. He added that the issue was about an extreme minority of thugs who, without a doubt, never watched the movie. Area resident Marie-Jeanne told Le Parisien: Because it [the movie] discussed sexuality, they [the protestors] considered it inappropriate for the children of the neighborhood. Its a movie where a man can be with a man, where women wear miniskirts. Thats not a problem for me because thats the world we live in, but for other communities, that can be a problem.Yet another serious attack on programming that deprives families and children of a cultural event, said French Culture Minister Rachida Dati (Les Rpublicains, center-right). In the past year, I have taken firm measures against these serious attacks that have become a new form of delinquency.But a day after he spoke out against the cancellation of the film, Mayor Sarrabeyrousesays that the citys social media accounts have been flooded with insulting, racist, and particularly Islamophobic messages. He condemned what he called the totally disproportionate reaction in the media and the speculation and racist, Islamophobic hatred by the right and far-right that developed after news of the cancellation was made public. The religion of the young men alleged to have made the threats is not known, but the northern and eastern suburbs of Paris have a large Muslim population. The messages the city received on social media might have had something to do with what French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau (Les Rpublicains) said on BFMTV regarding the incident: In France, there arent any moral or virtue police. Its not acceptable for a violent minority to use pressure to make public spaces halal. Halal is an Arabic word that means acceptable and is used to describe things, like food, that follow Islamic law.The interior ministers words today wont extinguish this flame of racist hate that targets both me and my constituents, Sarrabeyrouse said. The AFP reports that an investigation has been opened into the threats in the department of Seine-Saint-Denis, where Noisy-le-Sec is located.The AFP said that they interviewed people in the space where the movie was supposed to be projected and talked to several young men who said that they worried about children under the age of 10 seeing the movie, which they called inappropriate and too vulgar. AFP says they said that their opinions had nothing to do with Islam or religion.Sarrabeyrouse said that the city is working towards scheduling another showing of the movie. Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.