For the last few years, we’ve written the digital equivalent of reams about Disney’s descent into wokeness. From the company’s strong stance against Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill to the increase of LGBTQetc characters and storylines, nearly every week brought new opportunities to point out Disney’s far-left turn.
As someone who grew up on Disney and loves most of its output, it was painful to call out a company that has meant so much to me. But I also knew how far the company had strayed from Walt Disney’s original vision of family entertainment based on American (and Judeo-Christian) values.
The times may be changing at Disney. We’ve already seen Disney-Pixar abandon an LGBTQ storyline in an upcoming project, and now Fox Business reports that the company is dropping diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives from its latest SEC filing.
Disney didn’t mention its “Reimagine Tomorrow” project in its 2024 SEC filing, even though it featured prominently in the 2023 filing. The initiative was full of left-wing buzzwords and devoted to “amplifying underrepresented voices and untold stories as well as championing the importance of accurate representation in media and entertainment.”
Flashback: Disney Cast Members Who Don't Buy Into the LGBTQ Agenda Make Their Voices Heard
One page of the website boasts about how the company slaps warning labels on content that doesn’t meet today’s standards of political correctness:
As part of our ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion, we are in the process of reviewing our library and adding advisories to content that includes negative depictions or mistreatment of people or cultures. Rather than removing this content, we see an opportunity to spark conversation and open dialogue on history that affects us all. We also want to acknowledge that some communities have been erased or forgotten altogether, and we're committed to giving voice to their stories as well.
“We can't change the past, but we can acknowledge it, learn from it, and move forward together to create a tomorrow that today can only dream of,” another paragraph on that page states. The “advisory council” for this facet of “Reimagining Tomorrow” is like a who’s who of far-left “representation” organizations.
Another DEI initiative that didn’t appear on this year’s SEC filing is the “Disney Look” program. In the 2023 filing, Disney reported that it had "updated” its cast member uniform standards “to cultivate a more inclusive environment that encourages and celebrates authentic expressions of belonging among employees." In other words, dudes could wear dresses and paint their nails.
Fox Business reports that investors are trying to convince Disney to join other major corporations and stop reporting data to the gay activist Human Rights Campaign.
Disney’s move to distance itself from the woke initiative comes as activist investors are pressuring the company to drop its participation in the Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) Corporate Equality Index.
The HRC releases a yearly survey which grades corporations on their compliance with a litany of LGBTQ initiatives, among them "Equal health coverage for transgender individuals without exclusion for medically necessary care" and "Integration of gender identity and sexual orientation in professional development, skills-based or other leadership training that includes elements of diversity and/or cultural competency." Disney has had a perfect score on the Equality Index every year since 2007.
Disney’s distancing from DEI is a major step in the right direction. The company will probably never totally abandon leftism, but it’s nice to see it moving back toward its founder’s vision for the type of entertainment Disney is supposed to produce.
This begs a couple of follow-up questions. Will Disney go back to making original, entertaining content? And will it lower theme park prices and stop making the guest experience too complicated to enjoy? Both of those are big asks, so we might as well be grateful for baby steps right now.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member