Disney’s fierce opposition to a Florida parental rights law is merely “the last straw”
Citing internal communications, a member of Disney’s “Imagineering” team of creative talent wrote under a pseudonym for the independent publisher Quillette that the iconic entertainment giant has been “rotting from the inside for quite some time.”
Disney’s fierce opposition to a Florida parental rights law barring any discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in schools through the third grade is merely “the last straw,” wrote the employee under the pen name Ethan L. Clay.
Chapek thanked those who had shared with him their “pain, frustration and sadness over the company’s response to the Florida ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill.”
“Speaking to you, reading your messages, and meeting with you have helped me better understand how painful our silence was. 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
Clay explained why the leadership of Disney, “a company famous for family-friendly content which finds broad reception in nearly every country in the world,” ended up “taking a side in such a heated political battleground.”
“This new messaging, intended to mollify the company’s internal critics, accelerated Disney’s meltdown instead,” Clay wrote.
“‘Brave Space Conversations’ are now held at regular intervals – an absurd euphemism for struggle sessions designed to allow activists to vent their frustrations while drowning out dissenting voices. All regularly scheduled company meetings are cancelled to make room for these meetings, and park leadership opens the floor to hours-long performative recitations of grievances by hand-picked cast members.”
The meetings, he added, “conclude with grandiose statements about inclusion and fairness and understanding pain and listening, but not a single nonconforming viewpoint is heard, either from those who support the bill or those who think Disney has no business getting involved in this dispute in the first place.”
Clay pointed out that the company’s website promises “inclusion” and “fairness” are values “for everyone.”
But in reality, they apply only to “historically oppressed groups.”
“The only pain worth understanding is that felt by the subsection of LGBT cast members who believe that sex education ought to begin in kindergarten,” he wrote.
“Listening and seeing is restricted to the approved narratives, and even excludes those LGBT cast members who support the Florida legislation. I know many of them personally, and nearly without exception, they are all parents.”
He found it astonishing that a “family-friendly” company “would oppose the perfectly reasonable view that sexual topics are not appropriate for six-year-olds in a public school setting.”
CEO Chapek’s March 11 email, he wrote, contained these ominous words: “Starting immediately, we are increasing our support for advocacy groups to combat similar legislation in other states. We are hard at work creating a new framework for our political giving that will ensure our advocacy better reflects our values.”
Clay concluded that “time will tell whether or not Imagineering, and the Disney brand overall, can survive this internal revolution.”
“But current trends are not encouraging.”