LGBT Disney

[carolinakid]

I’m a big gay Disney Princess fan! I used to have 2 beautiful sweatshirts of Cinderella and Aurora that I bought from the Disney catalog maybe 20 years ago. I’d love to see that type of clothing come back!

[Disney's Divinity]

The Tiana and Naveen shirt is cute. I think the only Disney shirts I've ever had though are some of those that were made back when they had Disney "Divas" merchandise for the villains. I had a nightshirt that included all the villainesses, even the QoH, Tremaine, Medusa, and Mim--there was some kind of cute slogan, but I forget what it was. I miss those days.

[Farerb]

Same-Sex Kiss Restored in Pixar’s ‘Lightyear’ Following Staff Uproar Over ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill
https://variety.com/2022/film/news/pixa ... 235209179/

[blackcauldron85]

Re: Nimona:

After Reports Of Alleged LGBTQ+ Changes To Pixar Movies, Members From Another Disney Project Share More Claims
https://www.cinemablend.com/movies/afte ... ore-claims

Blue Sky staffers with knowledge of meetings between Disney and Blue Sky recall Disney leadership had an issue with the LGBTQ+ elements of Nimona, especially the same-sex kiss. In a mid-2020 meeting, Blue Sky animators reportedly felt “pressure” to remove the kiss, but still had hopes for the scene to make it into the film...Disney’s reaction to Nimona’s queer themes "caused a weird atmosphere" at Blue Sky, especially among LGBTQ+ staffers... One former Blue Sky staffer also said this: "When the biggest entertainment company in the world creates content for children and systematically censors queer content, they are pushing queer children to dark places."

[Disney's Divinity]

I'm glad they're returning focus to that while Disney is in the crosshairs already, it's the best way to draw attention to it.

[blackcauldron85]

Walt Disney Imagineers Urge Disney to Reverse Florida Relocation Following ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Controversy
https://wdwnt.com/?p=644206

*Edit*
Disney cast members planning walk-outs:
https://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2022/03/ ... -gay-bill/

[Disney's Divinity]

This article is so well-written... I tried to cut here and there so as not to bomb the page here, but almost everything said in this one was perfect.

Disney's 'Don't Say Gay' Bill Stance Disrespects One of Its Most Instrumental Figures
Queer icon Howard Ashman transformed Disney—but in light of Florida's recent anti-LGBTQ legislation, the company's inaction speaks volumes on his legacy.

Disney as it’s now known would not exist without the man whom Roy E. Disney described in 2009 documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty as “Another Walt.” Two-time Academy Award winner Ashman played a major role in ushering in the Disney animation renaissance of the ‘90s. He was the lyricist and story collaborator on box office and critical successes like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin along with composer Alan Menken. Chapek might remember him as the creative mind he tried to mine posthumously through Disney’s bids to build off of the successes of the Disney renaissance, efforts that just couldn’t match the success of the originals that saved the company.

“Howard Ashman looms large, not only for his incredible storytelling gifts and his lyrical gifts, but because I really believe he’s responsible more than anyone else for the second golden age of Disney animation,” Lin-Manuel Miranda recently said to IndieWire, when discussing how Ashman directly inspired his whole career and most recently his work on Disney’s Oscar-nominated Encanto.

Jodi Benson, the voice of The Little Mermaid’s Ariel, agrees. “The animation studio was basically shutting down,” she told NPR while recalling going in to record for the 1989 musical. “When we did our film, we didn’t even have an animation division over at the lot… it was just unbelievable to think that Walt’s vision was dying.”

As many young, marginalized Disney fans can attest, it truly was music from The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast that helped minority communities begin to find a way into a new culture being built within a company like Disney, especially considering it built its back off films that enabled traditional, heteronormative conformity. Ashman’s lyrics actively rallied against some of the fairytale tropes that came before, giving us independent heroines over passive princesses, characters that knew and proudly stated what they wanted from their lives, and pushing Disney at large to evolve as times changed. Ashman’s push back against conformity can be found throughout his lyrical work—take Beauty and the Beast’s still timely “Mob Song,” for example: “We don’t like what we don’t understand / in fact it scares us / and this monster is mysterious at least / Bring your guns / bring your knives / save your children and your wives / we’ll save our village and our lives.”

The lyrics could be interpreted as a response to the ostracization of people affected by the AIDS epidemic, a disease that tragically took Ashman away from us too soon when he passed away in 1991. It remains relevant with the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, and anti-trans directives across America, especially in states like Florida that receive a great deal of money from Disney—their money siding with the mob taking arms, in the purported name of “saving your children and your wives,” from marginalized people who just want to live their lives as their truest selves.

In Don Hahn’s 2018 documentary Howard, which is streaming on Disney+, Bill Lauch, Ashman’s partner (and the first openly gay man to accept an Academy Award on behalf of his partner) described “Mob Song” as “a perfect manifestation of people seeking a scapegoat for their troubles and identifying a villain and wanting to exterminate it.” In another poignant Howard moment Lauch reflected on his partner’s legacy. “Disney is the biggest producer of family entertainment in the world, and here is a gay man writing songs and producing songs for kids,” Lauch says at one point. “It wasn’t assumed that everyone would be OK with that. He was afraid. We were both afraid.”

Even if Disney at large doesn’t, Alan Menken, a long-time collaborator of Ashman, continues to actively honor his friend. During his concerts, the composer performs “Sheridan Square” alongside their shared Disney classics, a heartfelt number Ashman wrote about the AIDS crisis. In a conversation with D23: Inside Disney, Menken talked about how he had begun to introduce the piece in concerts and the audience reaction encouraged him to even bring it to the stage at Disney’s D23 Expo. “It’s very emotional and very positive despite all the grief… he really was grappling with understanding what this was and what his relationship was to this,” Menken recalled, adding that he would wrack his brain trying to help his friend find solutions when Ashman was too tired to work. In those conversations, Ashman told him, “I don’t want to act as if this is something I brought on myself or that I will get rid of by some other method like it my fault or my responsibility.” And so Menken plays it to say what needs to be said, what Ashman wanted to say.

Ashman laid the foundation of the musical landscape for the modern Disney sound. It’s such an insult to his legacy, and to the myriad queer creatives and other employees that work to make Disney one of the biggest companies on the planet today, to tacitly support legislators who make LGBTQ+ people feel like their safety and lives are at stake. Writing 25 years after after his passing in 2016, Sarah Gillespie, Ashman’s sister, commented in a personal blog why the realities of the AIDS epidemic that took her brother’s life should never be ignored. “It was ugly, it was brutal, it stole from the world some of the best and the brightest not only in the arts but in the sciences and the humanities and mostly, in the hearts of all those who loved its victims. It was cruel and unnecessary and a terrible curse made all the worse because of the painful slowness of the richest country in the world to acknowledge the disease and attempt to find a cure.”
...
Ashman’s music is what makes the magic of Disney’s real. Walking through Disney’s parks, his presence is felt, the tune of songs like “Part of Your World” or “Belle” playing in the background noise of the lands. His music prominently functions as the through-line on rides based on The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. There would be no night-time firework spectaculars and parades without the pulse of songs like “Friend like Me,” “Be Our Guest,” and “Under the Sea.”

Ashman knew that. Shortly before his passing, Ashman visited Walt Disney World while on The Little Mermaid press tour, getting to see his work come to life at the park. “I think it dawned on him that the work he’d been doing there was going to live on,” Lauch recalls at one point in Howard. “It was going to become part of this canon of pieces that Walt Disney has in their collection. And it would reach many people.”
...
The company is losing the goodwill of those who love its work every day—goodwill earned by the creative genius of Ashman, but also people like Bob Gurr, Disney’s first openly gay Imagineer, who helped built the lands thousands of family flock to from around the world. It loses it from creatives like Benjamin Siemon and Dana Terrace, whose work at Disney Animation is lauded for its handling of LGBTQ+ themes and characters in shows like Ducktales or The Owl House.

Without any of these voices, Disney would have become a relic of a bygone era long ago. Instead of lining the pockets of politicians seeking to do great harm to the lives of marginalized people, Disney leadership needs to raise its voice for those it owes so much to—and for those who can make it so much better in the future.

https://gizmodo.com/disney-dont-say-gay ... 1848619996

[carolinakid]

To me the Parental Rights in Education bill and Disney’s legacy with the gay community are two separate things. I am fully aware and appreciative of Mr Ashman’s contributions and I support Parental rights regarding teacher led discussions of sexuality and transgender issues from ages pre/school through grade 3.

My boyfriend and I were dining at Steakhouse 71 tonight at the Contemporary Resort and we heard songs from Little Mermaid and Aladdin as we walked to the parking lot.

[Disney Duster]

Thank you for that abridged post of that article, Divinity, I really loved it. Ashman really was like the next Walt that spent way too brief a time at Disney.

[Disney's Divinity]

Ashman really was like the next Walt that spent way too brief a time at Disney.

Really amazing to think he only had full control over two films (TLM, B&tB), and less involvement with several others (O&C, Aladdin--his influence on Menken impacting Menken's future work without him to a degree, too, I imagine) and yet he had a massive impact on Disney, WDAS, and culture as a whole to this day. It's too bad Disney is still largely on the side against the LGBT community thirty years on since.

[Disney Duster]

I completely agree with everything you said, Divinity!

[blackcauldron85]

Are you kidding me?!
Disneyland Cast Members Reportedly Told Not to Wear Official Mickey Pride Pins in Support of Walkout
https://wdwnt.com/?p=646051

[PatrickvD]

Honestly I’m just grabbing the popcorn at this point to enjoy the show.



A statement just went out on all of Disney’s socials and it’s vapid and empty and the comments are ferocious. Disney is facing the wrath of cancel culture. They can choose to move with the times or remain stuck in the past.

[Disney Duster]

Honestly I’m just grabbing the popcorn at this point to enjoy the show.



A statement just went out on all of Disney’s socials and it’s vapid and empty and the comments are ferocious. Disney is facing the wrath of cancel culture. They can choose to move with the times or remain stuck in the past.

The word you probably mean to use is vacuous.

Disney...it's time to get gay.

[blackcauldron85]

Disney in balancing act as some workers walk out in protest
https://apnews.com/article/business-tra ... 649c26e023

Union leaders for the tens of thousands of unionized workers at Disney theme parks in Florida and California said they saw no walkout momentum among their members, advising them not to do so because it would defy contractual obligations.

...In a Tuesday Facebook post, Disney wrote that the company opposes “any legislation that infringes on basic human rights” and stands “in solidarity” with LGBTQ employees “who make their voices heard today and every day.”

...The group of employees calling for the walkout said on its website that, until the legislation is repealed, Disney leaders need to stop investments in Florida, including the relocation of 2,000 mostly professional jobs from its California headquarters to Orlando. They also say Disney needs to develop an LGBTQ brand similar to the Onyx Collective, an initiative aimed at developing content by and for people of color.

Disney Executives Reportedly Rejected Pleas from Disney Parks, Experiences, & Products Leaders to Denounce Controversial ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill https://wdwnt.com/?p=646816

Chapek and LGBTQ+ leaders in the company held a virtual town hall, acknowledging the pain Disney caused when they decided not to speak out. Chapek briefly appeared during the call, saying “I understand where we have made mistakes — and the pain those mistakes caused. I know that our silence wasn’t just about the bill in Florida, but about every time an individual or institution that should have stood up for this community didn’t. I and the leadership team are determined to use this moment as a catalyst for more meaningful and lasting change,"

...Chapek also revealed that he will postpone a corporate management retreat set for next week in Orlando, and instead go on a “listening tour” at Disney worksites around the world. The company signed on in opposition of Texas’ controversial anti-transgender legislation earlier this week.

Disney Parks' official statement:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CbaAtxTMwv2/
(via wdwnt.com)

To ALL who come to this happy place, welcome.

Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products is committed to creating experiences that support family values for every family, and will not stand for discrimination in any form. We oppose any legislation that infringes on basic human rights, and stand in solidarity and support our LGBTQIA+ Cast, Crew, and Imagineers and fans who make their voices heard today and every day.

Disney Parks Issues Statement in Support of LGBTQIA+ Communities Following ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill Criticism https://wdwnt.com/?p=646097

Los Angeles Times: Disney had a tight-lipped employee culture. Then Florida happened.
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-a ... ee-walkout
(https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fw ... ee-walkout)

[Sotiris]

I think it's important to see the other side of it too. Liberal employees harassing and intimidating conservative employees within the company is not a good look either. Everyone deserves to be able do their jobs in a safe and friendly environment.

‘They Call Their Fellow Employees Bigots’: Conservatives At Disney Issue Open Statement Detailing Hostile Work Environment
https://www.dailywire.com/news/they-cal ... nvironment

[carolinakid]

Thanks, Sotiris. One rarely hears the conservative/ religious cast members point of view. That’s a beautiful statement. The harassment and bullying is real.

[Disney's Divinity]

As if only conservatives are religious people. In fact, dressing up hatred in religious language isn't my vision of God in any degree.

Anyway, homophobes are all over the place, not just in the top jobs. I'm not going to wax on in pity for them. Especially when they're endorsing antagonism against LGBT children. If they want to dish it out against kids, they can very well take it in return as fully-grown homophobic adults.

[Disney's Divinity]

Raven-Symone joins Disney walkout over 'Don't Say Gay' bill
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-a ... washington

[carolinakid]

I doubt RS has actually read the Parental Rights in Education bill or knows what’s even actually in it.

I wonder how many actual Florida parents of pre-K- grade 3 kids are upset about the PRIE bill.
The statistic I saw said over 60% of Floridians support it.