Disney wants to be on the good side of Florida and California politicians. In Florida, that means sucking up to conservatives; in California, that means sucking up to liberals. That’s just how it goes. It’s unfortunate and wrong that so much of the American political landscape is controlled by large corporations; Disney objectively isn’t the worst corporation in the US, having never gone to court to prevent the government from making their health insurance cover any basic needs, but that is just a race to the bottom all the way around. Right now, they could be using the clout they’ve gathered over the years to help, and they’re simply not.
Oh, Walt himself hated unions and Commies. He felt personally betrayed when his workers organized, because weren’t they a family? Having, I guess, forgot how horribly his actual father treated him, because “like a family” never means a healthy family. So it’s not as though Disney has always been a progressive haven of pure equality or anything. The fact that Disney’s hair policies have loosened up as little as they have in the literal decades since dyeing your hair wild colours has become a common thing tells you something, to say nothing of the attitude toward natural hair on PoC.
Still, there’s been some disappointing stuff from the company lately, hasn’t there? Supporting politicians who support the Don’t Say Gay bill in Florida. Not letting same-sex kisses appear in Pixar movies. Disney could put a lot of pressure on homophobes, or at the very least they could choose not to support them. Instead, we get a wishy washy “Oh, we told the governor we’re not happy about the bill in a private conference but are still supporting these people financially,” which in the long run only helps the homophobes.
And there’s a lot of talk about how they’re keeping Disney “family friendly,” but I promise you my kids don’t notice same-sex attraction any more than they notice opposite-sex attraction—or nonbinary, come to that. It’s two grown-ups doing grown-up stuff, and can we have more of the funny horse instead, please? (My five-year-old really likes Tangled.) I promise you they would’ve been no more upset by Elsa kissing a woman than by Anna kissing a man. To those who think that we’re programming our kids to our point of view, bear in mind that my son once proposed to a girl who rode his school bus, and the only person my daughter’s expressed interest in marrying is . . . me.
In conclusion, gay. Gay gay gay. Gay gay gay gay gay. Gay gay gay. Gay gay. Gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gay. Gay.
Support the LGBT community in Florida; they need it more than I.