Video from an internal Walt Disney Co. meeting shows top executives vowing to greatly increase the number of LGBT characters in Disney productions.
Journalist Christopher Rufo obtained several clips from the company’s “Reimagine Tomorrow” meeting — apparently held in response to Florida’s Parental Rights in Education legislation — and shared them on Twitter on Tuesday.
In one video, Latoya Raveneau, identified as an executive producer for Disney Television Animation, said the company already has been pushing hard for what she described as her “not-at-all-secret gay agenda.”
“On my little pocket of, you know, Proud Family Disney TVA, the showrunners were super welcoming … to like, my, like, not-at-all-secret gay agenda,” she said.
“Maybe it was that way in the past, but I guess, like, something must have happened,” Raveneau said.
She expressed joy in the “momentum that I felt, that sense of ‘I don’t have to be afraid to, like, let’s have these two characters kiss in the background.’ I was just, wherever I could, just basically adding queerness,” she said.
“No one would stop me, and no one was trying to stop me,” Raveneau said.
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
General entertainment president Karey Burke said Disney must greatly increase the number of lead characters who are gay.
“I’m here as the mother of two queer children, actually, one transgender child and one pansexual child, and also as a leader,” Burke said.
“I have heard so much from so many of my colleagues over the course of the last couple weeks in open forums and through emails and phone conversations. I feel a responsibility to speak not just for myself but for them,” she said.
She talked of 20th Century Fox as “the home of really incredible, groundbreaking LGBTQIA stories over the years.”
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
But that is not good enough, she said.
“One of our execs stood up and said, ‘You know we only have a handful of queer leads in our content,’” Burke said. “And I went, ‘What?’ I said, ‘That can’t be true.’ And I realized it actually is true.”
She went on to say her goal is to have 50 percent of Disney leads as LGBT and minority characters, Rufo said.
In another clip the journalist shared, Disney production coordinator Allen March said his team had created a “tracker” to ensure his team is creating enough “gender-nonconforming characters,” “canonical trans characters” and “canonical bisexual characters.”
SCOOP: Disney production coordinator Allen March says his team is committed to "exploring queer stories" and has created a "tracker" to make sure they are creating enough "gender nonconforming characters," "canonical trans characters," and "canonical bisexual characters." pic.twitter.com/ddSzw4aqQv
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) March 29, 2022
The company also invited Nadine Smith, co-founder of Equality Florida, to participate in the call, according to the U.K.’s Daily Mail. Smith attacked Florida politicians for the new law protecting the rights of parents.
Disney’s corporate leadership opposed the legislation, which it inaccurately described as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Statement from The Walt Disney Company on signing of Florida legislation: pic.twitter.com/UVI7Ko3aKS
— Walt Disney Company (@WaltDisneyCo) March 28, 2022
“When they can erase you, when they can criminalize your existence when they can demonize who you are, the next step is to criminalize you and take your kids,” Smith said.