Thanks to bombshell video, leaked Tuesday, Americans are starting to understand just what kind of Fantasyland the company is. Corporate President Karey Burke painted a horrifying picture of the company's future projects, insisting on an employee Zoom call that she wants a "minimum of 50 percent of its characters to be LGBTQIA" and other minorities.
"I'm here as the mother of two queer children," Burke said, "one transgender child and one pansexual child." And "going forward," she insisted, those are the stories Disney should be telling.
The video, which had almost two million views in less than 24 hours, was the latest crack in what's quickly becoming an irreparable split with America. Disney CEO Bob Chapek, who's tried to overcorrect for his silence on the Florida parental rights bill, has managed -- in four short weeks -- to turn the company from a moderately woke entertainment giant into public enemy number one. Now, as more trickles out about what's really going on behind the scenes, most parents are saying they want no part of the empire Walt built.
As pathetic as Chapek's public groveling has been to witness, it's the internal activism that's truly concerning. Apart from Burke, Disney's television animation executive producer, Latoya Raveneau, spent portions of that same meeting bragging about her indoctrination tactics.
"Our leadership over there has been so welcoming to my not-so-secret gay agenda," she gushed. "Wherever I could I was adding queerness. No one would stop me and no one was trying to stop me."
When they aren't busy turning princes into princesses (or banning the words "boys and girls" at theme parks), Disney is vowing to take on Florida's Parental Rights in Education policy. In its latest "huh?" moment, the company issued a formal statement pledging to fight a law that -- ironically -- Disney never opposed until it passed. "Our goal as a company is for the law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that."
Good luck, Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) fired back. Our state, he insisted, is not run by "California corporate executives." "We will continue to recognize that in the state of Florida, parents have a fundamental role in the education, health care and well-being of their children. We will not move from that. I don't care what corporate media outlets say. I don't care what Hollywood says. I don't care what big corporations say. Here I stand. I'm not backing down."
Later Tuesday, after insisting that Disney's threats had "crossed a line," DeSantis pointed to the company's hypocrisy. "They actually do Disney cruise to the nation of Dominica, which criminalizes homosexuality. So they're fine doing that and lining their pockets." Same with the Chinese Communist Party, where they do tens of billions of dollars in business. "Maybe," he joked, instead of banning K-3rd grade lessons about sex and gender, Florida should have done a bill outlawing "talk on the Uyghur abuse in China. Disney would have supported that legislation, because they don't want to say a word about that."
In the meantime, let's hope Chapek's job was worth the price Disney is paying. Christopher Rufo, the conservative journalist who posted the company's Zoom call, said he's been inundated with comments from mom groups and other consumers who are cutting the cord with Disney over its ideological hostage-taking. Florida Rep. Joe Harding (R) is just one of the leaders who can't believe the company is willing to alienate so many people to placate an angry few.
"What it tells you," he warned on "Washington Watch," "is that right now, their intent is not even necessarily political wins. I mean, there's been polling that's shown that the majority of Democratic primary voters actually agree with this bill. So the way the Left has doubled down is even more alarming, because I believe they are willing to die on this hill. They are [very] dug in on indoctrinating our children."
The goal is to cut parents out completely, so the Left can lead children down this dangerous path. But unfortunately for them, there's no appetite for the outrageous brand of extremism they're pushing. Part of that is thanks to DeSantis, who's simply refused to back down in the face of the mob.
"Our governor, he's a lion," Harding agreed. "On these conservative issues, we've never had a governor in any state that's this bold and this fearless." And because of that, we see an outpouring of parents across the country demanding more bills like this one.
Disney made its bed. They picked a side. Now, Chapek and every other CEO choosing politics over parents will have to live with it. In the meantime, Harding insisted, Americans can't let up.
"[The Left has made] Disney, which is in every home in America... part of their arm of influence. If we do not make this the last stand -- [if we] do not make this a turning point, I believe it could be too late to recover from it."
This column originally appeared here.
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