A conservative Disney official said the company was making “a terrible miscalculation” in supporting the just-signed Don’t Say Gay bill, and suggested Republican employees and park-goers could boycott the famous theme park.
Jose Castillo, who is also running for Congress in Florida, said his employer’s decision to support the controversial parental rights law, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law, could be “bad for business” since not everyone is a law ‘crazed liberal’ who works there.
“There’s this misconception that everyone at Disney is just angry liberals, and I don’t think that can be further from the truth,” Castillo said on Fox News on Wednesday. “I have countless people who work for The Walt Disney Company who reach out to me on social media every day [that are Republican].’
The “strong conservative” also said he was “not concerned about my job” despite his conflicting opinion of Disney executives.
“I think if I were fired for my views, I think it would send the wrong message to conservatives that conservatives are not welcome at Disney.”
He also said Disney’s position on the law could be “bad for business” as it states: “Our goal is for the law to be overturned by the legislature or struck down by the courts.”
Jose Castillo, a Disney employee and congressional hopeful, said Disney is making “a terrible miscalculation” in supporting the Don’t Say Gay bill. “There’s this misconception that everyone at Disney is just angry liberals, and I don’t think that can be further from the truth,” he said Wednesday. He argued that Disney’s liberal stance on the law isolated conservative workers who “voted for our state legislature” that passed the law
Disney CEO Bob Chapek has announced that the company disagrees with the Parental Rights Bill, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law
He argues that many employees have voted the legislature into the Florida House of Representatives and Senate to oppose the law that kills democracy because only a “small minority within the Walt Disney Company who are part of the LGBT community are the most vocal.” screams, and that’s what they do to be the loudest.’
“The left talks about democracy, but what about our democracy?” asked Castillo. “The people of Florida, many Disney cast members, voted for our legislature. These are dual elected members of the Florida House of Representatives and Florida Senate who passed this legislation. [and] sent it to the governor and thank god our governor has the backbone to hold his own against corporations like [Disney] to stand by the people of Florida, to stand by the parents to protect our children.’
Fox News’ Laura Ingraham suggested that Disney’s position could discourage Republicans from going to Disney parks and prompt conservatives to boycott the most magical place on earth. Castillo agreed, explaining that that’s why Disney needed its conservative staff to speak out.
“We need conservatives like me – as a candidate, I’m going to be as loud as I can to tell people we need to stand up for our conservative values. And I’m going to do the same thing in Congress, but Disney doesn’t realize — you know, we got an email from our executives saying their stance on the bill and what not — but what people don’t realize, I knew where they were standing already, but there are a lot of people [unintelligible].’
Another Disney employee said in a blog post that employees were “using their ample free time for internal political action” during the pandemic lockdown.
‘The [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion] department within the company grew a staggering 633 percent between 2019 and 21, while almost every other department shrank by 25 to 75 percent,” said employee Ethan Clay.
At the same time, the fifth key, inclusion, was added to the four other Disney training keys: safety, courtesy, show and efficiency.
He said the original four keys helped “Disney cast members tell stories that appeal across demographic, geographic, ethnic, religious and political lines.”
“Every major event that has taken place in American society since Disneyland first opened its doors in 1955 has rolled by and the Four Keys have remained unchanged. And yet in 2021, as the nation reopened in waves from lockdowns, the fifth key of inclusion was added. Why now? Why?’ asked he.
He said “Florida was the last straw” and “Disney has been rotting from the inside out for quite some time”.
On March 2, the company began speaking out about its “inclusion for all” position after employees asked the company to comment on the bill. On March 7, Disney CEO Bob Chapek acknowledged the “disappointment” of LGBT employees and said the company “stands by them” but that they would not step out onto the political battlefield.
However, a day after the bill passed on March 8, Chapek announced he would be meeting with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to appeal the bill.
“I understand that our original approach, no matter how well intentioned, didn’t quite work out,” the CEO said at the time.
“It’s unbelievable that a company – especially a company whose trademark is family-friendly content – should defy the perfectly reasonable view that sexual topics are inappropriate for six-year-olds in a public school,” Clay wrote in his blog post.
Yesterday, DeSantis slammed a Disney exec for opposing its parental rights law in education — while they dock their cruise ships in the Dominican Republic — a country that bans same-sex marriage and condones discrimination against gay people.
“One has to wonder why the hill to die injects transgenderism into kindergarten classrooms or gender-savvy ideologies into second grade classrooms. Why is this the hill to die for?’ he asked in a Tuesday night interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson.
“Meanwhile, if we had passed a law prohibiting speaking about the abuse of Uyghurs in China, Disney would have supported that legislation. You won’t say a word about it,” the Republican governor continued, earning Carlson a chuckle.
“So it’s just a weird manifestation of their corporate values that they’re actually taking Disney Cruises, Tucker, into the nation of Dominica, which actually criminalizes homosexuality,” DeSantis said, referring to laws in the Dominican Republic that prohibit gay marriage and Anti-gay discrimination legal.
“So they do that well and fill their pockets, they fill their pockets well from the CCP and all the atrocities that are happening there,” he continued, referring to the Chinese Communist Party, which the company thanked in the credits of its live Action Mulan reboots.
“But it’s these Florida kindergarten kids who really want transgenderism as part of their core curriculum in school.”
Disney has redoubled its opposition to DeSantis’ so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law in recent weeks after customers and employees pushed back over their reluctance to oppose the law, which prohibits teaching gender ideology in kindergarten through third bans class if passed first time.
On Monday, one of the company’s presidents promises to record more gay stories.
General Entertainment President Karey Burke promised in a company-wide Zoom call that the company would do more to become more inclusive.
Disney has also changed its default greeting at its Lake Buena Vista theme park from “ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls” to “dreamers of all ages.”
But even some of the most staunch fans are struggling with the new wake-up changes, as some Disney World regulars say they’d be canceling their season passes. Disney stock prices have fallen 4 percent in the past month.
DeSantis’ comments come after Burke said on her Zoom call that the issue for her was close to home “as a mother of two queer kids, actually a transgender kid and a pansexual kid, and also as a leader.”
Burke also defended 20th Century Fox as “home to truly incredible, groundbreaking LGBTQIA stories over the years,” but said more needs to be done – and pitched Disney’s “Reimagine Tomorrow” campaign, which aims to represent more minority groups.
Under the proposal, half of the regular and recurring characters in Disney General Entertainment’s scripted content would come from underrepresented groups.
“We have many, many LGBTQIA characters in our stories, and yet we don’t have enough hints and narratives where gay characters can just be gay characters and don’t have to be about gay stories,” she said in the Zoom call.
During the same all-hands meeting, television animation executive producer Latoya Raveneau gushed about Disney’s inclusivity and boasted about adding “queerness” to shows and productions.
“Our leadership over there has been so welcoming of my not-so-secret gay agenda,” she said. “Wherever I could, I added queerness. Nobody wanted to stop me and nobody tried to stop me.’
LBGT workers at Disney have called on the company to oppose the law
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Campaign reports that 8 percent of Americans identify as a member of the LGBTQ community.
But the proposal is just one way the company is increasingly awake following controversy over its delayed prosecution of the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, which bans teaching children about sex, gender identity and sexual orientation not age appropriate.’
In recent weeks, the company has reintroduced a same-sex kiss in its upcoming Lightyear film, a spin-off of Toy Story.
However, many Americans see the company’s move to a wake-up policy as hypocritical.
The company has yet to condemn China’s Uyghur genocide and has bowed to the Chinese Communist Party in the past, notably a Tiananmen Square joke from an episode of The Simpsons and a kissing scene from its $200 million live Action adaptation of Mulan removed after its Chinese executives deemed it inappropriate.