For all intents and purposes, Disney is synonymous with Florida. That’s where Disney World is, and that’s kinda where everyone just assumes the corporation does most of its business. And right now, without mincing words, Florida is a mess, especially politically. Now, since the passing of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, a super controversial piece of legislation that has the LGBTQ+ community up in arms, Disney finds itself in the middle of a political firestorm. And let’s just say, things aren’t going well for the Mouse House right this moment.
We’re not going to dive deep into the specifics of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, but suffice it to say, it mainly targets the educational system in Florida, preventing discussions of sexual orientation and LGBTQ topics. As you might expect, folks aren’t very happy about it. Things really got dicey for Disney, however, when it was revealed that the corporation has donated money to political figures who support the bill. (To which Disney replied by saying the company donates to both sides.)
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This news has led to a minefield that CEO Bob Chapek has been trying to navigate over the past several days, which has led to more information about Disney’s hush-hush practices coming into light and quite a bit of backlash from the LGBTQ+ community and its allies.
First, we’ll talk about news coming out of Disney-owned animation studio, Pixar. Shortly after the news about Disney supporting politicians on the side of “Don’t Say Gay,” a letter penned by Pixar employees (via Variety) shed light on apparent mandates from Disney executives about eliminating same-sex affection in films.
“We at Pixar have personally witnessed beautiful stories, full of diverse characters, come back from Disney corporate reviews shaved down to crumbs of what they once were,” the letter said. “Even if creating LGBTQIA+ content was the answer to fixing the discriminatory legislation in the world, we are being barred from creating it.”
This comes after comments made by Chapek which said that Disney would fight discrimination by making content that showed inclusivity and diversity. Apparently, Pixar folks see that promise as hollow.
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Then came news of another letter to Disney executives from the LGBTQIA+ Business Employee Resource Groups days ago that asked Chapek to speak publicly against the bill immediately. However, we know now that Disney didn’t discuss the passing of the bill until days after it was passed, which was then marred by its wishy-washy explanation for the delay.
Lastly, we are now seeing that the Human Rights Campaign is turning down a donation from Disney, which was promised after the “Don’t Say Gay” bill was passed. The organization is turning down the donation because it wants to see more action from the company, which only adds to the mounting pressure felt by Disney.
Where is all this going? Will we see the multi-billion dollar company make a hard stance against the legislation? Who knows? But it definitely appears that this is a situation that isn’t going to go away quietly and could affect Disney in even bigger ways down the line.