Internal Pixar Letter Disputes Disney’s Support Of LGBTQIA+ Employees & Questions Company’s Commitment to Change

“Here I am being queer and gorgeous and I’m on the red carpet, and I’m very happy to represent fellow gorgeous queer that consume Disney,” Encanto actress Jessica Darrow told Deadline tonight on the Oscars red carpet.

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.

Oscar Isaac has something to say about “Don’t Say Gay.”

list of demands for how the company at large should take steps to protect LGBTQ+ rights. “Today and every day, we Hulugans are united against all legislation that infringes on the basic human rights of the LGBTQIA+ community,” Hulu wrote in a tweet Tuesday morning.

Some new details are coming out about Pixar’s movie Luca.

While not specifically calling out Disney’s recent debacle surrounding Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” legislation, Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy made it known that she and her fellow PGA Milestone Award recipient George Lucas are on the right side of history, giving a shout-out to the impact of diverse, female and LGBTQ artists in the motion picture industry.

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.

After coming under fire for its handling of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, Pixar is restoring a cut scene from its upcoming film “Lightyear”.

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.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment WriterOn March 9, LGBTQ employees and allies at Pixar Animation Studios sent a joint statement to Walt Disney Company leadership claiming that Disney executives had actively censored “overtly gay affection” in its feature films.

Disney’s bungled response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The movie studio issued their vote of support in a Twitter statement Wednesday.“We strongly denounce any and ALL legislation that infringes on the basic human rights of the LGBTQIA+ community,” they wrote.

J. Kim Murphy Marvel Studios released a statement denouncing anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation on Tuesday afternoon.

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.

It’s been a rough first two years for Bob Chapek in Disney’s top job.

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.

first reported on Twitter by journalist Judd Legum of the newsletter Popular Information, strikes back against Chapek’s comments — in both a company-wide memo sent to Disney employees and subsequent remarks at the company’s annual shareholder meeting — purporting to stand with the company’s LGBTQ employees and the LGBTQ community more broadly.In the memo, issued earlier this week, Chapek defended the company’s decision not to issue a statement on the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill — a piece of “parental rights” legislation that seeks to keep parents informed of any changes in the way schools deal with their children, particularly with respect to affirming a child’s gender identity or sexual orientation without the parents’ knowledge.The bill explicitly bans teacher- or school-led discussions of LGBTQ-related topics up to the third grade, and requires that any conversations in older grades be age-appropriate and “developmentally appropriate.” But critics say that, in practice, given the pressure on teachers and the lack of support from administrators seeking to appease overly-sensitive or litigious parents, schools — and individual teachers — will preemptively censor student speech or LGBTQ-related content, even at the middle and high school levels. Chapek’s memo was issued in response to demonstrations by LGBTQ groups outside of Disney theme parks in Florida and California, as well as simmering discontent among employees, which stemmed not only from what critics characterized as a tepid response to the bill, but from an Orlando Sentinel report that Disney donated to every politician who sponsored and co-sponsored the legislation.In the internal memo, Chapek said the company “unequivocally” stands in support of its LGBTQ

Disney executives have censored gay affection in its films.In an open letter attributed to LGBTQIA+ animators and allies at the studio (obtained by Variety), it reads: “We have personally witnessed beautiful stories, full of diverse characters, come back from Disney corporate reviews shaved down to crumbs of what they once were.“Nearly every moment of overtly gay affection is cut at Disney’s behest, regardless of when there is protest from both the creative teams and executive leadership at Pixar.”The letter is in response to Disney’s messaging around the recently passed legislation in Florida known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which blocks the discussion of LGBT+ identities in schools.Disney’s soft reaction to the legislation attracted widespread criticism.

The Human Rights Campaign is not taking money from Disney anymore.

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.