After Florida embraced HB1557, the Parental Rights in Education Bill that was just signed into law, some at Disney appear to be tripling down on their rhetoric. The Florida-based company was one of the biggest obstacles to getting the law passed, while Disney CEO Bob Chapek had been forced internally to take a stand against HB1557 before it was signed by Governor Ron DeSantis. Disney later released a statement condemning the law shortly after its passing.
Statement from The Walt Disney Company on signing of Florida legislation: pic.twitter.com/UVI7Ko3aKS
— Walt Disney Company (@WaltDisneyCo) March 28, 2022
Now, progressive Disney employees, including many high-ranking officials at the company, are plotting to inject even more LGBTQ messaging and propaganda into their content. Christopher Rufo of City Journal obtained several clips of Disney employee meetings where this strategy was discussed. It can be easily inferred that the people in these video clips understand their roles in influencing what children think and believe. Much of the discussion revolves around forcing more LGBTQ characters into stories and rethinking how gender roles are approached in Disney content as well as at their theme parks.
SCOOP: I've obtained video from inside Disney's all-hands meeting about the Florida parental rights bill, in which executive producer Latoya Raveneau says her team has implemented a "not-at-all-secret gay agenda" and is regularly "adding queerness" to children's programming. pic.twitter.com/eJnZMpKIXT
— Christopher F. Rufo
(@realchrisrufo) March 29, 2022
SCOOP: Disney corporate president Karey Burke says, "as the mother [of] one transgender child and one pansexual child," she supports having "many, many, many LGBTQIA characters in our stories" and wants a minimum of 50 percent of characters to be LGBTQIA and racial minorities. pic.twitter.com/oFRUiuu9JG
— Christopher F. Rufo
SCOOP: Disney diversity and inclusion manager Vivian Ware says the company has eliminated all mentions of "ladies," "gentlemen," "boys," and "girls" in its theme parks in order to create "that magical moment" for children who do not identify with traditional gender roles. pic.twitter.com/OWsGTUoeCA
— Christopher F. Rufo
SCOOP: Disney production coordinator Allen March says his team is committed to "exploring queer stories" and has created a "tracker" to make sure they are creating enough "gender nonconforming characters," "canonical trans characters," and "canonical bisexual characters." pic.twitter.com/ddSzw4aqQv
— Christopher F. Rufo
As Rufo’s clips hit Twitter and reached a larger audience, a backlash against Disney began to build. #BoycottDisney began to trend on Twitter. The material also made it to cable news’s most watched show, Tucker Carlson Tonight. Governor DeSantis joined Carlson to discuss the new law as well as the reaction by Disney. They showed the video clip of Disney corporate president Karey Burke lamenting the fact that Disney has “many, many, many LGBTQIA characters in our stories, and yet we don’t have enough leads.” Burke also mentioned that she is the mother of a “transgender child and one pansexual child.”
.@GovRonDeSantis: "They have to lie, because if they admitted what they were really for, sexualizing kindergarteners & first graders, they know that would not fly with the public." pic.twitter.com/QcpizrF1aO
— The Columbia Bugle
(@ColumbiaBugle) March 30, 2022
DeSantis broached a question that many seem to be asking: “Why is the hill to die on to have transgenderism injected into kindergarten classrooms, or woke gender ideology injected into second grade classrooms? Why is that the hill to die on?”
The Governor continued, “So that the fact they’re going to this length, to torpedo legislation that, I think 90 percent of parents just view as common sense, it really makes you wonder about what’s motivating this decision making.”
Carlson and DeSantis then challenge those who use the phrase “don’t say gay” to refer to HB1557, mentioning that the bill has nothing to do with gay marriage, and that “the word ‘gay’ is not in the legislation.”
DeSantis adds that opponents of this bill at Disney, in corporate media, and in the Democrat Party “have to lie, because if they admitted what they were really for, sexualizing kindergartners and first graders, they know that would not fly with the public.”