Days after The Walt Disney Company made an official stand against the alleged ‘Don’t Say Gay‘ bill passed by the Florida state, a top official at the company has expressed that representation of LGBTQ and racial minority characters will be elevated in its content production.
Karey Burke, President of Walt Disney’s general entertainment has promised in a company meeting that nearly half of all Disney characters would either be LGBTQ+ or racial minorities by the end of this year.
Disney produces movies and shows for children.
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
In a video posted by American journalist Christopher F Rufo, Burke can be heard making a case for increased representation of the LGBTQ community after the company saw many protests on its campuses concerning the controversial bill. She expressed that she took this decision as a mother of a transgender and a pansexual child and as a leader of the company.
“I am here as a mother of two queer children – one transgender child and one pansexual child and also a leader. It got me thinking when I had conversations with my colleagues on open forums and I feel a responsibility to speak not just for myself but also for them,” she added during the meeting.
Pansexual refers to a category of people who do not limit their sexual preferences based upon biological sex or gender identity.
Burke noted that when one of her executives reported the company’s content having only a handful of queer leads, She realised the company was not inclusive enough. She suggested that while the company has “many many many LGBTQIA+ characters”, there was a dearth of them as leads and narratives in which gay characters are not ‘just characters’.
In a teary-eyed address, Burke referred to The Walt Disney Company’s ‘Reimagine Tomorrow’ campaign which aims to represent more minority groups. ‘By 2022, 50% of regular and recurring characters across Disney General Entertainment scripted content will come from underrepresented groups” the campaign statement says. “Going forward, I hope this is a moment where we just don’t allow each other to go backwards,” she added.
Among its recent woke decisions pandering to liberal politics in the USA includes addressing visitors at Disney parks as ”Dreamers of all ages” instead of “ladies and gentleman, boys and girls.”
Statement from The Walt Disney Company on signing of Florida legislation: pic.twitter.com/UVI7Ko3aKS
— Walt Disney Company (@WaltDisneyCo) March 28, 2022
On March 28, The Walt Disney Company took an official stand in criticising the alleged ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill passed in Florida after its employees stanged protests across the USA. Disney asked for the bill to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts after it was forced to take a political stand by its LGBTQ+ employees. The controversial bill caused much disruption in the country, which effectively restricts teaching concepts like ‘Sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ to children from kindergarten to class 3.
