Disney executives discussed Monday how they push a “not-at-all-secret gay agenda” via their children’s programming, according to viral footage of an internal company meeting.
SO WHAT
Amid a national fight over children’s education, Mickey Mouse appears to have been caught with his pants down, so to speak.
ROLL THE TAPE
Chris Rufo — a conservative activist known for his exposes about the teaching of “critical race theory” — on Tuesday tweeted five clips from the company-wide virtual meeting about the enactment of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law.
1. LATOYA RAVENEAU, an executive producer at Disney Television Animation: “In my little pocket of Proud Family Disney TVA, the show runners were super welcoming … to my not-at-all-secret gay agenda.”
“I was just, wherever I could, adding queerness,” Raveneau said of inserting subtle and overt pro-LGBT messages into children’s cartoons. “No one would stop me, and no one was trying to stop me.”
2. KAREY BURKE, the president of Disney’s General Entertainment Content: “I’m here as a mother of two queer children, actually: One transgender child and one pansexual child, and also as a leader.”
Tearing up, Burke said she supports featuring “many, many, many LGBTQIA characters in our stories” and appeared to refer to Disney’s pledge that half its characters will come from “underrepresented groups.”
3. ALLEN MARTSCH, a production coordinator at Disney Television Animation: “[The team making the forthcoming ‘Moon Girl’ cartoon has] been really open to exploring queer stories.”
“So it’s not just a numbers game …,” Martsch explained. “Kind of the only way to have these canonical trans characters, canonical asexual characters, canonical bisexual characters is to give them stories where they can be their whole selves.”
4. VIVIAN WARE, the diversity and inclusion manager at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts: “Last summer, we removed all of the gendered greetings in relationship to our live spiels.”
“So we no longer say, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.’ … It’s, ‘Hello, everyone,’ or, ‘Hello, friends. … We say, ‘Dreamers of all ages.'”
5. NADINE SMITH, the executive director of Equality Florida: “When we react to this [Parental Rights in Education law] … we’re also reacting from the reality that when they erase you, when they can criminalize your existence, when they can demonize who you are, the next step is to take your kids.”
The Parental Rights in Education law bars classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through third grade.
- Disney has condemned the “Don’t Say Gay” law and vowed to get it “repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts.”
- But even Florida Democratic primary voters support the law 52-36, according to a recent poll.
THE LAST WORD
In comments to the New York Post Wednesday, Rufo said a number of Disney employees told him “the company has totally gone off the rails.”
- “From critical race theory to gender ideology, executives are pushing extreme left-wing activism in every facet of the company,” he said.
- In an unsigned open letter published last week, conservative Disney employees said they don’t feel they belong “in a company actively promoting a political agenda so far removed from our own.”