'Very conservative' Disney family are deeply divided over so called 'Don't Say Gay' bill

A Disney historian has come forward to dismiss the idea that the famous family are united against Florida’s controversial ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill. 

Historian Jim Korkis described the family, which still owns a 3 percent stake in the company, as ‘very conservative’ and ‘private,’ in an interview with the New York Post. 

This comes as the Disney corporation clashes with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over the bill that is officially known as Parental Rights in Education. The bill, which will become law from July 1, bans formal lessons on gender identity for children from kindergarten through to third grade. 

When the bill first passed in March 2022, Disney CEO Bob Chapek was initially silent. But, days later, the company public said it opposed the bill following internal pressure from workers and the public. 

Some members of the Disney family, like Abigail Disney and her brother Roy P. Disney – whose stepdaughter is transgender – have been openly critical of the bill, but their views don’t appear to be mirrored by some family members. 

‘In general, the whole family is very conservative and they keep to themselves Korkis told The Post. ‘They have always been extremely private. The family is not unified whatsoever.’ 

According to Roy P. Disney, Walt Disney’s grand nephew, the family still owns around three percent of the company.  In 2021, the Disney corporation raked in nearly $22 billion in revenue. 

Although the family has no control of the company’s decisions, Korkis told the Post that it was Walt Disney’s goal to keep his family away from running the business. 

Roy P. Disney said in April 2022 that his stepdaughter Charlee Corra is transgender. He said that he is ‘heartbroken’ by the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill. 

Laws similar to the one in Florida are also being considered in Alabama, Ohio, Louisiana, Texas, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee.  

Roy and his wife Sheri announced that they would match donations Disney made to the Republican Party to the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ advocacy group in the country, up to $500,000.

‘Equality matters deeply to us, especially because our child, Charlee, is transgender and a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community,’ he wrote in a statement.

Charlee told The Los Angeles Times, said that they were dismayed at Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s signing of the controversial ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, which forbids the discussion of homosexuality or transgender issues in classrooms for children through third grade.

Charlee said that they were dismayed at the bill, signed into law on March 28, and wished they had done more at the time to campaign against it.

‘I feel like I don’t do very much to help,’ Charlee said. ‘I don’t call senators or take action. I felt like I could be doing more.’

Charlee said the new bill would isolate young people and make them feel uncomfortable in their own skin.

‘I had very few openly gay role models,’ said Charlee, whose mother remembers Charlee aged two or three tugging her away from the little girls’ shoe section, saying: ‘But mom, I’m a boy on the inside.’

Charlee added: ‘And I certainly didn’t have any trans or nonbinary role models.

‘I didn’t see myself reflected in anyone, and that made me feel like there was something wrong with me.’

The most outspoken member of the family has been Roy O. Disney, Walt Disney’s brother’s granddaughter, Abigail Disney, 62.

Abigail Disney has even gone so far as to criticize her family’s business practices and their treatment of staff. At one point, she labelled Walt Disney as a racist anti-semite. 

Last month, she responded to criticism of the family firm for its move to be more inclusive and create more LGBTQ characters.

She said the attacks from right-wing critics were ‘absurd’.

‘There have been gay people whether or not the word was ever spoken,’ she told CNN.

‘It denies the fact that everyone, conservative or not, has a gay friend or a transgender family member.’

She publicly celebrated her brother’s decision to publicly speak about Charlee, posting on Twitter:  ‘Today I am busting with pride at what my brother and his wife have done. So proud so proud so proud!!!’ she said. 

Korkis told the Post that Abigail Disney is the ‘wildcard’ of the family.  He went on to say that due to their wealth, members of the Disney do whatever they want in life. 

Roy O. Disney, who died in 1971, and Walt Disney, who died in 1966, were both conservatives but had some liberal tendencies, Korkis said. 

According to Korkis, both were concerned with environmental issues and both believed hiring women to work at Disney.  

In April, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he would strip Disney of its Reedy Creek Improvement District, which has been in place for 55 years and allows the company to govern itself.  

‘Disney has alienated a lot of people now,’ DeSantis said on April 1.

‘And so the political influence they’re used to wielding, I think has dissipated.

‘And so the question is, why would you want to have special privileges in the law at all? And I don’t think that we should.’

Abigail Disney said DeSantis, considered a likely Republican contender for the presidency in 2024, was playing a strategic game to win over conservatives.

‘This attack against Disney was so timed and rolled out so strategically that it was really hard for me to imagine that it didn’t come from a series of decisions that got made in the background,’ Abigail Disney said.

She said the company’s CEO Bob Chapek, who has been criticized for wavering in his support for protests against the bill, needed to be courageous and take a hard stance.

‘You can’t claim neutrality if you’re supporting the people who write these laws,’ Disney said.

‘But on top of it, there is no neutrality anymore.’

Disney employs around 60,000 people. 

On Friday, it was reported that Geoff Morrell, the company’s head of communications who helped to construct Disney’s response to the Florida bill, was to leave his job after just three months in the role. 

Morrell initially advised Chapek to remain silent on the bill out of fear that it would make Disney a punching bag for Republican figures DeSantis and Donald Trump reports CNBC.  He will be replaced in the role by Kristina Schake.  

Following Disney’s decision to oppose the bill, DeSantis retaliated by beginning efforts to strip Disney of its privileges in Florida where one of the the company’s theme parks is located.

The company has donated to both Republican and Democratic candidates over the years, Korkis said. He added, ‘It’s quite a slap in the face that the Republicans have declared war on Disney.’