Variety: A group of Disney employees have planned a week of in-person and virtual walkouts in response to the company and CEO Bob Chapek’s handling of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” Bill.
On Monday afternoon, the Twitter account called Disney Walkout posted a message explaining that, “The LGBTQIA+ workers and allies at The Walt Disney Company are standing in solidarity together over the coming weeks.”
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Like many, I heard about this since the news broke out sometime in the past two weeks. I keep tabs on animation things on social media, and the amount of upheaval about this was massive. The same few empty phrases from corporate kept coming around, and even a Disney notes app apology. A Disney notes app apology! In 2022! Both past and present employees were so upset they began doing small acts of rebellion like publishing art with Disney characters as queer and one of the current showrunners for the channel did a charity stream in protest – which sidenote raised over 70k which was really impressive. What is wild to me is that so many of the people that make Disney what it is are queer, in addition to selling merchandise and partnering with other institutions. The decision to walk out and take action against this should be straightforward, but the reality is that not everyone can participate in it. I hope that people do, and if they do that the company will actually pay attention. Granted the possibility of those events happening is extremely low, but technically still possible.
I’m glad employees of Disney are staging walkouts and I hope they are supported in this decision. It is so disappointing that Disney failed to stand up for the LGBTQ+ community and the fact it has financially supported legislators behind the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The absence of queer characters in their movies is obvious, but I did not realize the extent of minimizing queer culture in the parks. The email sent out by Disney's CEO is a classic case of performative activism. But the response from the Pixar team is powerful. They articulately outlined how Disney has made impacts on legislation before and can easily do it again. For millions of kids, Disney/Pixar films are what we grew up watching and are an important moral/cultural resource, when often the only other perspective is our family. I hope the Disney employees don’t face any pushback from the executives and this helps pressure Disney into making the right decision.
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