Disney employees plan walkouts over company’s response to the “Don’t Say Gay” bill
The group of employees have organized a week of in-person and virtual walkouts
Aux News Disney
On the heels of Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s apology letter for his botched response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” Bill, a group of LGBTQIA+ employees and allies have planned a week of in-person and virtual walkouts.
Via a Twitter account named Disney Walkout, the group released a letter that read, “The LGBTQIA+ workers and allies at The Walt Disney Company are standing in solidarity together over the coming weeks.”
“The recent statements by The Walt Disney Company (TWDC) leadership regarding the Florida legislature’s recent ‘Don’t Say Gay or Trans’ bill have utterly failed to match the magnitude of the threat to LGBTQIA+ safety represented by this legislation,” wrote organizers. “Primarily, those statements have indicated that leadership still does not truly understand the impact this legislation is having not only on Cast Members in the state of Florida, but on all members of the LGBTQIA+ community in the company and beyond. While we certainly appreciate Bob Chapek’s apology note, there is still more work to be done.”
The “subpar representation” within Disney’s content and the company’s attempts at donating to organizations like the Human Rights Campaign is “simply not enough,” the letter continues.
“As a community, we have been forced into an impossible and unsustainable position and must now take action to convince TWDC to protect employees and their families in the face of such open and unapologetic bigotry,” the group explains, before detailing what the company should do in order to “regain the trust of the LGBTQIA+ community and employees.”
Organizers says Disney should end campaign donations to Florida politicians who pushed for or helped in creating the “Don’t Say Gay” Bill, publicly commit to an actionable plan of protection for employees, and create an LGBTQIA+ brand that focuses on underrepresented employees and LGBTQIA+ creators.
A website called whereischapek.com, which is linked in the tweet, includes more details about the walkouts that started March 15. From the 15th through March 21, the daily walkouts will be both in-person and virtual, and they will consist of a 15-minute period from 3:00 p.m to 3:15 p.m. The time is dependent on the employees’ time zone.
A full-scale walkout is planned for Tuesday March 22, with the group advising those who wish to join that it is “not a legally protected action” and to “take your own situation into account before choosing to participate.” It is unclear how just many employees will be participating in the walkout.
7 Comments
I’m glad to see people are still going after this bill and Disney’s shitty response. I got a little worried seeing the article praising Marvel for getting around to doing something after the bill passed by just a couple of votes.
This is going to be as effective as the Netflix “walkout” over the Chappelle thing
What would you prefer to see employees do?
I mean, they could picket (a real one, not a performative bullshit one-day vacation) or quit, but realistically there’s nothing they can do. As long as morons shell out cash for nine-figure-budget kiddie movies, companies like Disney will always exist, and they’ll always play both sides of the political fence.
Quit
I actually liked Disney’s initial response of ‘No one will respect the stance that a corporation with a sketchy past will take so let’s let the current content express that for us.” It didn’t land and they could definitely stop contributing to shitty people, but I do think they’re moving in the right direction.
We’re gonna walk out because we want kindergartners to have sex education! Sex education which covers every aspect of sex and preferences! I mean forget math, reading and science. Age appropriate stuff.