Disney Workforce Plans Walkouts And Makes New Demands Following 'Don't Say Gay' Controversy

Walt Disney Co.’s DIS response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” legislation continues to create internal strife as members of its workforce are coordinating a weeklong series of walkouts to protest CEO Bob Chapek’s handling of the controversy.

What Happened: Variety reports that a new Twitter Inc TWTR account called Disney Walkout has announced, “The LGBTQIA+ workers and allies at The Walt Disney Company are standing in solidarity together over the coming weeks.”

The new account has a link to a website called WhereIsChapek.com that includes details on walkout schedules, with mini-walkouts planned through March 21 between 3 p.m. and 3:15 p.m. in each time zone where Disney has offices and a “full-scale walkout” slated for March 22.

The Twitter account also posted an open letter calling on the company to cease political donations to Florida lawmakers who supported “Don’t Say Gay” and to create an LGBTQ brand similar in focus and mission to Disney’s Onyx Collective for content creators of color.

“Disney insists that they're listening and learning to the queer communities inside and outside the organization,” said one of the tweets on the new Twitter page. “Why, then, do queer people make up such a small portion of Disney employees, and are routinely underpaid? #DisneyDoBetter”

The open letter stated it was written in partnership with members of the LGBTQ community across many of Disney’s divisions 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.

See Also: Analysis: Why Can't Disney CEO Bob Chapek Be More Like His Predecessor Bob Iger?

Why It Happened: The organizers of this effort stated, “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.

“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,” they added. “While we certainly appreciate Bob Chapek’s apology note, there is still more work to be done.”

The action by the Disney workforce mirrors a similar action from Netflix Inc.'s NFLX employees last fall in response to perceived homophobic and transphobic comments made by comedian Dave Chappelle during his special “The Closer.”

Photo: MacGyverNRW / Pixabay