Disney LGBTQ Employees Plan Walkouts in Response to Company’s Handling of Florida ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill

Pixar’s forthcoming Toy Story prequel Lightyear has put a same-sex kiss back following an internal backlash to Disney’s handling of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” legislation.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment WriterOn March 9, LGBTQ employees and allies at Pixar Animation Studios sent a joint statement to Walt Disney Company leadership claiming that Disney executives had actively censored “overtly gay affection” in its feature films.

EXCLUSIVE: Just days after she became available following the cancellation of NBC’s Ordinary Joe, Natalie Martinez has been tapped as a series regular opposite Vince Vaughn in the Apple TV+ drama series Bad Monkey, written and executive produced by Ted Lasso co-creator Bill Lawrence. Martinez replaces Ana Villafañe who had originally been cast in the role. Recastings are unfortunate but inevitable part of the business that could be for various of reasons. In this case, I hear the character had been written older than Villafañe’s age, leading to the decision to replace her.

Gabrielle Union is putting the Walt Disney Company on blast over their stance on the new anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation in Florida.

Gabrielle Union has hit out at the Walt Disney Company over its decision to take a soft stance regarding the “Don’t Say Gay” bill banning Florida teachers in classes up to third grade from talking about LGBTQIA+ issues with their students.

SNP Finance Secretary Kate Forbes has accused Gordon Brown of “blatant mendacity” over his criticisms of her cost-of-living response.

Former “Veep” showrunner David Mandel had some fun with the US Senate bill that would end Daylight Savings Time.

Gabrielle Union has levied criticism towards the Walt Disney Company over its widely derided decision to take a soft stance regarding new anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation in Florida.The actress, who stars alongside Zach Braff in the studio’s upcoming Disney Plus reimagining of “Cheaper by the Dozen,” voiced her dismay regarding the situation on the red carpet for the streaming release.“Somebody asked me, ‘Are you disappointed?’ I’m disappointed when my order isn’t right at In-N-Out. I don’t even think that’s a word that you could use for something like this, where children’s lives are literally hanging in the balance,” Union told Variety at the premiere.

Marvel Studios have added their voice to the debate surrounding the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill in the US, saying the company “strongly denounces” any legislation that affects the rights of the LGBTQ+ community.The Republican-led bill, formally known as Parental Rights in Education, bans discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten to third grade classes (aged 8-9). It argued that conversations around identity should be handled by parents, not schools.A statement shared by Marvel Studios on social media read: “We strongly denounce any and ALL legislation that infringes on the basic human rights of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Disney’s bungled response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The movie studio issued their vote of support in a Twitter statement Wednesday.“We strongly denounce any and ALL legislation that infringes on the basic human rights of the LGBTQIA+ community,” they wrote.

As The Walt Disney Company employees planned walkouts today over “the lack of compassion and advocacy” from the company in regard to its LGTBQIA+ workers and their rights, especially where Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill is concerned, Disney-owned Marvel Studios posted a statement to Twitter strongly denouncing “any and ALL legislation that infringes on the basic human rights of the LGBTQIA+ community.”

The WGA West is calling on Hollywood to reconsider filming in Florida if Gov. Ron DeSantis signs the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill passed by the state’s legislature last week.

pic.twitter.com/hZHGc10BzhLast week, Chapek and Disney leadership faced both internal and external backlash following the leak of the CEO’s internal memo to employees explaining its decision not to speak out publicly against the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.While Chapek wrote that he and the rest of Disney leadership “unequivocally stand in support of our LGBTQ+ employees, their families, and their communities,” he also said that “corporate statements do very little to change outcomes or minds.

whereischapek.com offered employees details, saying they could take part in in-person and virtual walkouts for 15 minutes during their work breaks at 3 p.m. between Tuesday and early next week, followed by a full-scale walkout on Tuesday, March 22.

J. Kim Murphy Marvel Studios released a statement denouncing anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation on Tuesday afternoon.

If Bob Chapek and the rest of the Disney brass thought the March 11 apology over the House of Mouse’s fumbling response to Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ legislation would placate the outrage among their own staff, they should perhaps think again.

actively censor depictions of, or references to, same-sex affection in films despite touting itself as an LGBTQ-affirming place to work.CEO Bob Chapek initially defended the decision, claiming that the company “unequivocally” stands with its LGBTQ employees in the wake of the bill’s passage but saying he feared that taking a firmer position on the bill could backfire if any statements were “weaponized” by either proponents or opponents of the bill.But following backlash, both internally and externally, Chapek apologized for the company’s silence, saying in a statement sent to employees that he was sorry for the pain caused by Disney’s inaction.“Speaking to you, reading your messages, and meeting with you have helped me better understand how painful our silence was,” Chapek said in the statement. “It is clear that this is not just an issue about a bill in Florida, but instead yet another challenge to basic human rights.

“When we donate money to different political candidates, we have no idea how they’re going to vote going forward into the future,” said Disney CEO Bob Chapek at a shareholders meeting this past week.

A new ABC News/Ipsos poll published Sunday found that more than six in ten Americans oppose legislation that would prohibit classroom lessons about sexual orientation or gender identity in elementary school.

A bill has been introduced in the Georgia senate that resembles Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” legislation.

Chris Willman Music WriterThe Human Rights Campaign sure knows how to pick a month to throw a party, it was generally agreed by everyone attending the org’s annual L.A. dinner Saturday night, where the evening’s most invoked topics were veritably ripped out of the most topical mainstream media headlines.

UPDATE:  Human Rights Campaign Interim President Joni Madison said last night that she has spoken to Disney CEO Bob Chapek, but did not reveal specifics about their conversation.

Walt Disney Company Chief Executive Officer Bob Chapek issued a memo to the company’s LGBTQ+ and ally employees apologizing over his handling of the controversy over the media conglomerate’s response to Florida HB 1557, colloquially known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill.

Visibility is essential.

Disney CEO Bob Chapek has apologised to employees for his silence over Florida’s controversial ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill which was passed earlier this week.The Republican-led bill, formally known as Parental Rights in Education, bans discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten to third grade classes (aged 8-9). It argued that conversations around identity should be handled by parents, not schools.The White House has called the legislation “hateful” and something which targets “vulnerable students”.Disney has been criticised for not speaking out against the bill.

It’s been a rough first two years for Bob Chapek in Disney’s top job.

Disney CEO Bob Chapek is facing a major test of his leadership, after the company’s botched response to an anti-gay bill in Florida sparked a staff revolt among LGBTQ employees and their supporters.Chapek apologized to the staff on Friday, saying he should have been “a stronger ally.” But for some employees, who found the company’s silence on the bill profoundly alarming, the statement came too late.“This is a CYA [cover your ass] for Chapek — this is a weak statement,” one Disney staffer told Variety. “We should have gotten this apology on March 1, not weeks after — and after this bill was passed in Florida.”For Chapek, the apology capped a full week of attempted damage control.

The CEO of Walt Disney is addressing the company’s “painful silence” on the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which is due to become law in Florida.

Bob Chapek is speaking out again.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment WriterAfter weeks of internal strife and external controversy surrounding the Walt Disney Company’s lack of public response to the “Don’t Say Gay” legislation in Florida, CEO Bob Chapek announced in a company email on Friday that Disney will pause all political donations in the state during a restructuring of its political giving framework.Chapek also apologized directly to the company’s LGBTQ employees for his widely criticized messaging on the issue.“It is clear that this is not just an issue about a bill in Florida, but instead yet another challenge to basic human rights,” Chapek wrote.

Disney CEO Bob Chapek is in full damage control mode today as the blast radius from the company’s bungled response to Florida’s “discriminatory ‘Don’t Say Gay’ legislation threatens his newly minted reign at the House of Mouse.

More to come…

first reported on Twitter by journalist Judd Legum of the newsletter Popular Information, strikes back against Chapek’s comments — in both a company-wide memo sent to Disney employees and subsequent remarks at the company’s annual shareholder meeting — purporting to stand with the company’s LGBTQ employees and the LGBTQ community more broadly.In the memo, issued earlier this week, Chapek defended the company’s decision not to issue a statement on the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill — a piece of “parental rights” legislation that seeks to keep parents informed of any changes in the way schools deal with their children, particularly with respect to affirming a child’s gender identity or sexual orientation without the parents’ knowledge.The bill explicitly bans teacher- or school-led discussions of LGBTQ-related topics up to the third grade, and requires that any conversations in older grades be age-appropriate and “developmentally appropriate.” But critics say that, in practice, given the pressure on teachers and the lack of support from administrators seeking to appease overly-sensitive or litigious parents, schools — and individual teachers — will preemptively censor student speech or LGBTQ-related content, even at the middle and high school levels. Chapek’s memo was issued in response to demonstrations by LGBTQ groups outside of Disney theme parks in Florida and California, as well as simmering discontent among employees, which stemmed not only from what critics characterized as a tepid response to the bill, but from an Orlando Sentinel report that Disney donated to every politician who sponsored and co-sponsored the legislation.In the internal memo, Chapek said the company “unequivocally” stands in support of its LGBTQ

Disney executives have censored gay affection in its films.In an open letter attributed to LGBTQIA+ animators and allies at the studio (obtained by Variety), it reads: “We have personally witnessed beautiful stories, full of diverse characters, come back from Disney corporate reviews shaved down to crumbs of what they once were.“Nearly every moment of overtly gay affection is cut at Disney’s behest, regardless of when there is protest from both the creative teams and executive leadership at Pixar.”The letter is in response to Disney’s messaging around the recently passed legislation in Florida known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which blocks the discussion of LGBT+ identities in schools.Disney’s soft reaction to the legislation attracted widespread criticism.

The Human Rights Campaign is not taking money from Disney anymore.

As controversy continued to swirl around Disney’s stance on Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, the Hulk himself today tweeted praise for Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s statement in support of the LGBTQ+ community.