Disney pauses political donations in Florida, CEO Chapek apologizes for silence over 'Don't Say Gay'

[teach1st]

Source: CNBC

Disney’s CEO said Friday the company is ceasing its political donations in Florida due to the state’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill, and he apologized for the company’s previous silence on the issue.

“You needed me to be a stronger ally in the fight for equal rights and I let you down,” CEO Bob Chapek wrote in a statement to colleagues and the LGBTQ+ community published Friday. “I am sorry.”

The statement doubled down on comments he made supporting the LGBTQ+ community during the company’s annual shareholder meeting Wednesday.

Chapek and the Walt Disney Company faced pressure this week for not publicly opposing the Parental Rights in Education bill in Florida. The legislation, which was passed earlier this week, forbids instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools for kindergarten through third grade.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/11/disney-pauses-political-donations-in-florida-over-dont-say-gay-bill-backlash.html

[BeyondGeography]

1. Weak

[NotHardly]

19. Billionaire Mousekateer proming to be nicer until it is not proftable again.

Mikey is a RAT

[NCDem47]

2. Acts like there was nothing to do before it came law.

Bullshit.

Disney could siced their HIGHLY paid lobbyists on Tallahassee, but didn’t.

[MOMFUDSKI]

3. A day late and

a bazillion bucks short.

[AZLD4Candidate]

4. Day late, dollar short there, pal

[hay rick]

5. Apology not accepted. nt

[Cozmo]

6. Blah, blah, blah

[kimbutgar]

7. They'll just give donations under different name

Disney needs Florida more than Florida needs Disney.

We need to do a general travel boycott of Florida, Texas and those other states that are doing those crazy censorship laws.

[obamanut2012]

14. Nah, Florida needs Disney more than Disney needs Florida

But, Disney has always been a very conservative company, so... I mean, they hired a GOP operative just to liaise with DeSantis.

[dsc]

8. Instead of pausing all donations

they should be giving money only to those who opposed the law.

[NullTuples]

20. Instead they gave it to a do-nothing DC organization

And what's worse, one that repeatedly gets slammed for being so very white male.

One that was against fighting for marriage equality...up until the last moment before the Supreme Court ruled on it.

One that was against trans equality for many, many years.

[mountain grammy]

9. so the time to speak out

is before the bill is passed and signed. You'd think a CEO would know that.

[Zorro]

10. DeSantis has now been directly attacking Disney over this issue

It remains to be seen if DeSantis is mightier than the Mouse.

[rockfordfile]

12. He's a un-American pos

[XanaDUer2]

16. The mouse will stomp him nt

[Skittles]

11. they have a LONG way to go

but...it's a start

[Jerry2144]

13. It's a small start

You would think that these corporations would realize that giving to one party or stopping giving to that party would piss of a sizeable portion of our country since we're so polarized (thank you Fux "News" and Rush(ian) "Agent" Limpbaugh). Really the only way a corporation can avoid pissing off a chunk of the public will be to stop all political contributions to any politician. Sure, they would lose their tax breaks and sweetheart deals, but that loss could be made up for in more sales.

Look at Goya and how they hurt their sales. They are actually having to donate their unsold items to Ukraine so they don't go to waste.

[Alsteen]

15. Close it down

Disney should immediately close Disney World (continue to pay employees) until this horrific law is repealed. Shouldn;t take long. That's what a real American would do.

[NullTuples]

21. "Real Americans" are corporations and capitalists

Just step back and look at who our society works best for, who the laws are made to benefit.

Still, I agree with your sentiment - it would be the moral and ethical thing for them to do.

If they weren't a capitalist corporation.

[GregGilman]

17. Why stop donations to Dems?

Why is Disney refusing ALL political donations when only one party is passing repulsive legislation?

By refusing to take a side Disney is not doing the right thing -- nor being an ally. Shameful.

[MatthewHatesTrump2]

18. Kick

Better late than never.

[Mr. Evil]

23. If Chapek really wanted to send a message,

he'd announce that Disney would be closing its Floriduh location and moving elsewhere. Maybe Universal could follow suit just because.

Hell, they're going to have to move anyway as soon as Thwaites Glacier lets go.

[XiJung]

24. Now do China Disney

Poor ol Walt.