The Human Rights Campaign said Wednesday that it plans to refuse the donation Disney CEO Bob Chapek pledged to the organization until meaningful action is taken to ensure laws like Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill aren’t passed.
“The Human Rights Campaign will not accept this money from Disney until we see them build on their public commitment and work with LGBTQ+ advocates to ensure that dangerous proposals, like Florida’s Don’t Say Gay or Trans bill, don’t become dangerous laws, and if they do, to work to get them off the books,” Joni Madison, interim president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement released by the organization.
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The statement, which comes from the country’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer civil rights organization, highlights businesses’ impact on LGBTQ rights and notes that while Disney “took a regrettable stance by choosing to stay silent amid political attacks against LGBTQ+ families in Florida,” Chapek’s pledge during Wednesday’s shareholder meeting was “the first step” in the right direction.
“HRC encourages Disney, and all employers, to continue to fight for their employees — many of whom bravely spoke out to say their CEO’s silence was unacceptable — and the LGBTQ+ community by working with us and state and local LGBTQ+ groups to ensure these dangerous anti-equality proposals that harm LGBTQ+ families and kids have no place in Florida,” the statement continues. “Every student deserves to be seen, and every student deserves an education that prepares them for health and success — regardless of who they are. This should be the beginning of Disney’s advocacy efforts rather than the end.”
HRC was named as one of the recipients of Disney’s $5 million pledge during a Disney shareholder meeting Wednesday to support organizations focusing on LGBTQ rights protections. A source familiar with the situation said Disney had contacted HRC about the donation Tuesday.
Chapek also said that Disney signed a national business statement opposing anti-LGBTQ state legislation and that LGBTQ members of the company’s senior team in Florida would be meeting with Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was expected to sign the bill into law after it passed in the state’s legislature Tuesday. The statement followed growing backlash from Disney employees, particularly those in the LGBTQ community, over a memo from the CEO on Monday telling staff he did not want them to “mistake a lack of a statement for a lack of support.” Instead, he said, the company’s lack of a public statement denouncing the bill was due to corporate statements doing “very little to change outcomes or minds.”
A statement from the Animation Guild called Chapek’s decision “a momentous misstep by Disney’s leadership that defies logic and company ethics.”
“It is time for corporations who continuously seek to engage the LGBTQ+ community to prove that their intentions are not disingenuous by backing up their words with definitive actions,” the guild wrote. “To quote one of your own properties, ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ You have failed that test in Florida.”
During Wednesday’s meeting, Chapek clarified comments from his memo, telling shareholders, “We were opposed to the bill from the outset, but we chose not to take a public position on it because we thought we could be more effective working behind the scenes, working with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.”
HB 1557/SB 1834, or the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill, bans classroom instruction on issues of sexual orientation and gender identity by school personnel or third parties for kindergarten through third grade in public schools. It additionally allows parents to sue districts over alleged violations. Disney had remained publicly silent about the controversial bill as it made its way through the state legislature over several weeks.
