Disney CEO Bob Chapek Apologizes to LGBTQ Employees, Announces Pause for Political Donations in Florida

Ariana DeBose is speaking out.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle EditorAriana DeBose made history on Sunday night by becoming the first openly queer woman of color to win an acting Oscar for her work as Anita in Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story.” The musical was distributed by 20th Century Studios, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company.On the Academy Awards red carpet before the ceremony, I talked with DeBose about Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. DeBose says she has reached out to Disney CEO Bob Chapek to talk about the studio’s controversial reaction to the legislation.“Bob and I, we’re gonna do the work,” DeBose said. “I have [spoken to Chapek].

Disney is set to welcome the Wall Street crowd to Orlando for two days next week at annual event that’s still a go, even after a corporate retreat was nixed amid swirling headlines.

Disney CEO Bob Chapek is facing a crisis of confidence in his leader­ship that is fueling an atypical level of turmoil at the top of the world’s largest entertainment company.Though Chapek’s current em­ployment contract, expiring next February, is expected to be renewed soon, according to sources, his tenure as CEO has been marked by upheaval since he was named to the job in February 2020. Some of the disruption has been far out of his control, such as a global pandemic.

Disney’s LGBTQ employees and their supporters have begun a full day of solidarity actions to call attention to the company’s response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill.Meanwhile, Disney companies including ESPN, Disney Plus and Hulu, released Twitter statements in support of the LGBTQ community and against “legislation that infringes on the basic human rights of the LGBTQIA+ community.” The statements come a week after Marvel Studios made the same gesture on social media.Though most employees at Disney’s Burbank, Calif., headquarters have not returned to their offices, they are being asked to support the campaign by not working on Tuesday and sending messages on Slack and social media with the hashtags #DisneyDoBetter, #DisneySayTrans, #DisneySayGay and #WherelsChapek. When reached by Variety, Disney Walkout organizers expressed concerns about safety and retaliation, both internally and externally, which have deterred the group from organizing formal in-person rallies.On Twitter, Disney Walkouts affirmed their approval of the corporate messages shared today by Disney brands.

As many of its LGBTQ+ employees get set for a full-day walkout tomorrow, Disney has decided to postpone a management retreat set for next week as it continues efforts to calm the internal waters.

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.

Angelique Jackson 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.”The post then linked to an open letter written in partnership with members of the LGBTQ community across the Walt Disney Company (including Disney Corporate, Disney Television Animation, Lucasfilm, Pixar, Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution, Disney Streaming, Enterprise Finance, Enterprise Technology/Global Information Security and Bento Box). “The recent statements by The Walt Disney Company (TWDC) leadership regarding the Florida legislature’s recent ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill have utterly failed to match the magnitude of the threat to LGBTQIA+ safety represented by this legislation,” organizers wrote.

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

GLAAD, the nation’s leading LGBTQ advocacy organization, announced today a plan to grade film studios on political donations, public advocacy and global LGBTQ Content, a response to what the group calls the corporate inaction around anti-LGBTQ legislation in Florida and other states.

Disney CEO Bob Chapek, amid criticism for declining to speak out against the Florida “Don’t Say Gay” bill, came out against the legislation on Wednesday, insisting the media conglomerate has been “opposed to the bill from the outset” and noted he would engage with Gov. Ron DeSantis on the legislation.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterThe Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Chapek and other company leaders received a letter from Disney’s LGBTQIA+ Business Employee Resource Groups on Feb. 28, requesting the company “issue a public statement condemning anti-LGBTQIA+ policies in the U.S.” just after Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill had passed the state’s House of Representatives, but before it cleared the Senate, Variety has learned exclusively.“While there are over 200 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills being introduced across the nation (and more globally), we urge you to begin with speaking against these acts: The ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill in Florida (set to go into effect July 1st) and the Texas Governor’s directive for state agencies to investigate gender-affirming care as ‘child abuse,'” reads the letter, which was obtained by Variety Thursday, following Chapek’s first public opposition to the “Don’t Say Gay” bill at the Disney shareholders meeting Wednesday.