My family members have been major Disney fans for as long as we can remember. My parents honeymooned at Walt Disney World, and we go there at least once almost every year. I told somebody just yesterday that Disney keeps making it harder for families like ours to be Disney fans.
Between their constantly increasing prices and their continuing efforts to make trip planning more difficult, Disney has taken a lot of the fun out of our visits to the parks. On top of that, the company, which remained publicly apolitical for decades, has increasingly taken a hard-left stance.
Earlier this month, I wrote about how Disney was walking a fine line between the Republican politicians they support in Florida and their vocal, far-left cast members — Disney’s term for their employees — who have bought into the media’s lies about the Parental Rights in Education bill, which leftists have intentionally mislabeled the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. (That article is available for our VIPs, so if you want to read it, join today and use the code FIGHTBACK for 25% off. You won’t regret becoming a PJ Media VIP member.)
Disney no longer walks that line. Instead, they have “paused” all their political donations, and CEO Bob Chapek (who is a disgrace in multiple ways) has attempted to pressure Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to back away from the legislation. In typical DeSantis fashion, the governor wouldn’t budge.
Related: DeSantis Goes Beast Mode on Woke Culture, Disney, and the Media Lies About the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill
As I write this on March 22, Disney employees across the country are walking off the job to protest the Parental Rights in Education bill based on the media’s lies about it. Disney has embraced this action wholeheartedly:
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But not everybody at Disney subscribes to this bow to the LGBTQ lobby. A group of Disney cast members has written an anonymous open letter to the company’s management asking Disney to remain neutral. The letter is powerful and poignant, which is exactly what you’d expect from a company known for its storytelling.
“As employees of the Walt Disney Company, we believe in the dignity of all people,” the letter begins. “This is why we do what we do.” These cast members expressly state that they love what they do because they’re able to celebrate everybody with their art. But in the second paragraph, the letter takes a pointed turn.
“However, over the last few years, one group of cast members has become invisible within the company,” the cast members note. “The Walt Disney Company has come to be an increasingly uncomfortable place to work for those of us whose political and religious views are not explicitly progressive. We watch quietly as our beliefs come under attack from our own employer, and we frequently see those who share our opinions condemned as villains by our own leadership.”
Related: Disney/Pixar Answers the Call to Groom Kids on Sexuality
The letter specifically cites the way The Walt Disney Company (TWDC) has responded to the Parental Rights in Education bill and contrasts the political posturing with TWDC’s stated commitment to an inclusive work environment. The cast members say that they don’t feel that their workplace is inclusive to them.
These cast members also note that the opposition to the Parental Rights in Education legislation has not only grown louder from their far-left colleagues but so also has the push to “openly advocate for the punishment of employees who disagree with them.”
They reference an internal company poll that asked cast members if they felt accepted within TWDC. Many of them didn’t complete the poll because the questions were phrased in such a way that they believed their responses would place targets on their backs.
Referring to Reimagine Tomorrow, Disney’s efforts to tell inclusive stories about underrepresented people, the cast members lament that “the tomorrow being reimagined doesn’t seem to have much room for religious or political conservatives within the company.”
“Left-leaning cast members are free to promote their agenda and organize on company time using company resources,” the cast members pointedly declare. “They call their fellow employees ‘bigots’ and pressure TWDC to use corporate influence to further their left-wing legislative goals.” Meanwhile, conservative and apolitical cast members continue to work quietly, afraid to speak out against the company’s sharp leftward tilt.
They also point out something that should make Disney take notice: the alienation of those who spend their money on Disney’s products.
“Furthermore, as this politicization makes its way into our content and public messaging, our more conservative customers will feel similarly unwanted,” the cast members write. “You can only preach at or vilify your audience for so long before they decide to spend their money elsewhere.”
The cast members speak of the universality of most of Disney’s entertainment output, how Disney has appealed to audiences of all persuasions for generations, and that working for Disney has been a dream come true for them. They also remind TWDC’s management how Disney entertainment helped people navigate the tough year of 2020 without political commentary embedded in it.
“When Disney takes sides in political debates, they deprive the world of a shared love we all have in common,” they state.
They close with a particularly poignant reminder that Disney can be a vehicle for unity rather than division.
“Disney shouldn’t be a vehicle for one demographic’s political activism,” they rightly comment. “It’s so much bigger and more important than that. More than ever, the world needs things that we can unite around. That’s the most valuable role The Walt Disney Company could play in the world at this time. It’s a role we’ve played for nearly a century, and it would be a shame to throw all of that away in the face of left-wing political pressure. Please don’t let Disney become just another thing we divide over.”
They’re so right. Disney shouldn’t be taking such a strong, divisive political stand, although by doing so they fall in line with so many other corporations who have caved to the far left on so many fronts.
My heart goes out to these cast members. I can’t imagine how it feels to work for a company that has turned so hostile toward my values so quickly. Pray for them, and pray that Disney will listen to their concerns. I fear that management won’t listen and won’t moderate their far-left tone.
Read the whole open letter below:
Disney Open Letter by PJ Media on Scribd
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