In a new push for diversity, Disney wants to have more of its characters be racial minorities or part of the LGBTQ+ community by the end of 2022.
The matter was discussed in a companywide Zoom call that went down earlier this week, and a recording later made its way to Twitter.
In one widely-circulated screen recording, Karey Burke—Disney’s President of General Entertainment Content—spoke on how she felt compelled to call attention to the subject as the mother of two LGBTQ+ children.
“I’m here as a mother of two queer children, actually. One transgender child and one pansexual child, and also as a leader,” she said. “I feel a responsibility to speak—not just for myself, but for them.”
“We have many, many, many LGBTQIA characters in our stories, and yet we don’t have enough leads and narratives in which gay characters just get to be characters and not have to be about gay stories,” Burke added.
With light being shone on the matter, Burke wants the company to up its number of characters who are LGBTQ+ or part of underrepresented racial groups.
SCOOP: Disney corporate president Karey Burke says, “as the mother [of] one transgender child and one pansexual child,” she supports having “many, many, many LGBTQIA characters in our stories” and wants a minimum of 50 percent of characters to be LGBTQIA and racial minorities. pic.twitter.com/oFRUiuu9JG
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) March 29, 2022
Video of another Disney Exec named Latoya Raveneau also began circulating, as she said her “leadership [at Disney] has been so welcoming to [her] not-at-all secret gay agenda.”
“I don’t have to be afraid to have these two characters kiss in the background. I was, wherever I could, just basically adding queerness,” she continued. “No one would stop me, and no one was trying to stop me.”
SCOOP: I’ve obtained video from inside Disney’s all-hands meeting about the Florida parental rights bill, in which executive producer Latoya Raveneau says her team has implemented a “not-at-all-secret gay agenda” and is regularly “adding queerness” to children’s programming. pic.twitter.com/eJnZMpKIXT
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) March 29, 2022
This matter comes immediately after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the controversial “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law, as Blavity previously reported. It’s also worth noting that it comes on the heels of a separate controversy involving a same-sex kiss in Lightyear, an upcoming feature film centered around Buzz Lightyear of Toy Story.
Resultingly, pressed conservatives have begun airing their grievances online.
Controversial figure Ben Shapiro was quick to put in his two cents on the matter, saying that Disney was choosing “radical activists” over parents.
So Disney’s business plan is now radical activists > parents. Let’s see how well it works out for them.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) March 30, 2022
Others shared similar sentiments about how Disney was supposedly ruining America.
Disney is ushering Sodom and Gomorrah into America.
— Gretchen Smith (@cov_Gretchen) March 30, 2022
And, of course, there were calls to boycott the massive company.
Boycott Disney!!
— Brigitte Gabriel (@ACTBrigitte) March 30, 2022
However, Twitter was also filled with people laughing over the impassioned response to the matter, such as people reacting to how conservatives got “pansexual” trending.
Love to see ‘pansexual’ trending because the right wing outrage machine is harassing a Disney exec for saying she has two queer children
— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) March 30, 2022
“pansexual” is trending on Twitter
it’s a bunch of right-wing homophobes being mad about some Disney exec saying one of her kids is pan pic.twitter.com/RuHVL4Cs9y
— keucher! (@keuchr) March 30, 2022
People also shot down the argument that increased representation would negatively impact children.
“But the depiction of LGBT characters in Disney movies will scar my children!” pic.twitter.com/jaRJs2aFvW
— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) March 30, 2022
What do you think of the situation?