Disney staff stage walkout over company’s LGBTQ+ stance

by Dan Cooper |
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Disgruntled Disney employees stage a walkout to highlight their unhappiness with the company’s policy on LGBTQ+ rights. Around 100 staff staged a walkout at Disney’s Burbank headquarters yesterday to protest the company’s stance on LGBTQ+ rights. According to Deadline, the protesters walked out in the morning, with ‘100 staffers headed over to the Bette Davis Picnic area’. Social media was rife with messages and videos, both by the protesters and from those supporting them. The issue ignited a couple of weeks ago in the media through a comment from employees at the Disney-owned Pixar, who were unhappy at Disney’s censuring of any planned LGBTQ+ storylines. In a statement to Disney CEO Bob Chapek, which was submitted to The Hollywood Reporter, an unnamed group of LGBTQ+ Pixar employees, and their allies have claimed that ‘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.’ That statement echoed alongside another point of contention for the whistleblowers, which is Disney’s reluctance to publicly address the controversial and homophobic ‘Don’t say gay’ bill that looks like it is going to come into force in Florida, meaning ‘classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity’ will be prohibited. Disney CEO Bob Chapek has done little to calm the storm, simply claiming there would not be a statement as he did not want the company’s words to be ‘weaponised’. He also added “I do not want anyone to mistake a lack of a statement for a lack of support.” Whilst Chapek has previously indicated that Disney’s creative output is the best way to counter such legislation, the Pixar and Disney employees who are concerned with this stance seem to be taking matters into their own hands. They claim that Disney should speak out directly against the bill, whilst their attempts to make films that address such issues are being censured. As such, we’ve now seen a walkout which once again, does not look good for Disney. We’ll bring you more on this story as we hear it.
Image: BigStock
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