At this point, headlines declaring a Disney movie contains the studio's "first gay character" of one kind or another have become incredibly predictable. That these headlines keep happening is mainly because the bar for LGBTQ+ representation in Disney films has been so low that anything that passes that low bar is treated as newsworthy.
Cruella's Artie is the latest to get "first gay character" headlines. In as much as Artie can make any real "first" claim, it's because he at least has more scenes than Spectre in Onward, who at least had a name unlike the gay guy in Avengers: Endgame, whose identity was at least less ambiguous than Lefou's in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast, and so on and so forth in the list of Disney's bare-minimum "firsts."
Amidst this cycle of underwhelming corporate hype, it seems as if people have forgotten who Disney's actual "first gay character" was, assuming they were even aware he existed in the first place. This obscure but history-making character is Antoine Suisson in The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.
Don't go into The Princess Diaries 2 expecting some sort of masterpiece of representation or queer cinema; the gay content is as minimal as that in most of the films caught in the "Disney's first gay character" hype cycle. Antoine arguably isn't even really a "character." He's just one potential suitor for Mia Thermopolis shown in a Powerpoint presentation. He's said to enjoy poetry, dressage and "Liberace memorabilia." Mia thinks he's cute, but when it's pointed out he has a boyfriend, she raises her fist saying "Support!"
Though this scene is minor, it's impressive considering this was a G-rated Disney movie released in 2004. Unless you count a lesbian couple appearing in the background of Toy Story 4, this might be the only direct reference to being gay in a G-rated movie ever, which is all the more impressive given the MPAA's reputation for rating gay content more harshly than equivalent straight content. Mia's reaction is also a stronger gay rights statement than most of Disney's other "exclusively gay moments" in movies (Disney's TV series and streaming programs have notably been a lot more LGBTQ-friendly than its movies have been).
This is just one of the many surprising things about The Princess Diaries 2. It was co-written by Shonda Rhymes a year before she broke big with Grey's Anatomy and it features a Stan Lee cameo five years before Disney bought Marvel. It's a strange little footnote in Disney history, but it's worth remembering whenever you read the headlines about Disney's next "first gay character."