Disney has issued a statement following the signing of Florida’s controversial “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law.
09.03.2022 - 22:25 / thewrap.com
Disney CEO Bob Chapek said on its shareholders meeting on Wednesday that he will be meeting with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis along with other Disney LGBTQ+ leaders in order to discuss the controversial “Don’t Say Gay” bill that was passed in the state legislature this week.
Chapek and Disney had been highly criticized for not speaking out publicly on the issue, but on Wednesday he explained that the company privately opposed the legislation “from the outset” and were lobbying against it but were “unsuccessful.” Chapek also said that it is signing the HRC statement opposing the legislation and will be donating $5 million to LGBTQ+ groups. “We take very seriously our inclusion across the company, as you heard in my statement, we unequivocally stand in support of this group,” Chapek said in part.
“We continue to believe we can do a lot of good for people together.”Chapek said that he called DeSantis Wednesday morning to express his concerns and that he agreed to meet with Chapek and other leadership at Disney. Chapek however responded to concerns about its political contributions after it found that it had given to sponsors and co-sponsors of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Chapek argued that the company gives to candidates on both sides of the aisle and that they have “no idea” how the candidates will vote on certain issues going into the future, adding that they had also given to candidates who opposes the bill. However, he reiterated that they will reassess those political contributions at an upcoming meeting in April, as he alluded to in an internal memo Monday.
Disney has issued a statement following the signing of Florida’s controversial “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has signed the controversial Parental Rights in Education bill, also known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, into law.
all sexually-related or “age-inappropriate” topics from being broached in primary grade classrooms. But Republicans rejected the amendment, choosing to ban only LGBTQ-specific content. LGBTQ advocates also argue that, in enforcing the bill, teachers will send an implicit message to LGBTQ-identifying students that they have no supportive allies and should closet themselves, which may lead some youth to contemplate suicide due to feelings of isolation or depression.DeSantis, who has been roundly criticized for his support of the bill, slammed LGBTQ advocates and Hollywood elites — who mocked the bill and Florida at the most recent Academy Awards on Sunday — for attacking him, saying: “If the people who held up degenerates like Harvey Weinstein as exemplars and as heroes and as all that, if those are the types of people that are opposing us on parents’ rights, I wear that like a badge of honor.“They don’t want to admit that they support a lot of the things that we’re providing protections against,” he said, according to Fox News.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Monday signed a new law that bans instruction of gender identity and sexual orientation for public school children from Kindergarten to the third grade, drawing condemnation from one of the state’s largest employers, The Walt Disney Co.
signed the controversial legislation into law on Monday and wants the law to be repealed. In a statement, the company said that they would like for the bill to be repealed or struck down in the courts and are working with other state organizations to achieve that goal.
Ethan Shanfeld As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law on Monday, The Walt Disney Company issued a statement vowing to help repeal the controversial legislation.“Florida’s HB 1557, also known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, should never have passed and should never have been signed into law,” the statement reads.
Oscar Isaac may be in the midst of promoting a new Disney series, but that doesn’t mean he’ll hold back criticism of the company’s corporate response to Florida’s controversial “Don’t Say Gay” legislation.
LGBTQ+ Walt Disney Company employees and their allies put on a “full stage” walkout Tuesday at various corporate locations across the U.S. to protest what they see as a “lame” and “inadequate” stance taken by the company and its CEO Bob Chapek to the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida.
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.
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.
The Walt Disney Co. and CEO Bob Chapek are under fire for their perceived slow reaction to the “Don’t Say Gay” bill that recently passed the Florida Senate. It now heads to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is likely to sign it into law.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
Disney‘s Bob Chapek is breaking his silence amid backlash.