Arts & Entertainment
New CEO rebuffs homophobia, doubles down on inclusion at Disney shareholder meeting
An anti-LGBTQ activist got shut down at Disney’s annual shareholder meeting by none other than the company’s new CEO himself.
Caroline Farrow, who was representing the British conservative advocacy group CitizenGo, came to the March 11 event to pressure the entertainment giant over its promotion of “LGBT ideology” in its films and television programming. It was the first shareholder meeting to be presided over by Bob Chapek, a 27-year Disney veteran who replaced former company CEO Bob Iger at the end of February.
Farrow is an outspoken anti-LGBTQ propogandist who has described rainbow lanyards as a “hostile political symbol,” written an article claiming that LGBTQ parenting “threatens to eliminate the concept of motherhood and rides roughshod over children’s needs,” and has a history of making transphobic statements – even receiving an injunction to desist her tweets about a transgender lawyer.
At the Raleigh, North Carolina meeting, she spoke up to suggest that decline in the value of the company’ stock was due to its inclusion of LGBTQ representation in its content.
Directing her remarks at Chapek, she said, “At a time when your stock is down by 20 percent, is it perhaps time to reconsider what you can do to make Disney more family friendly… and also, what would you say to those 700,000 people who signed our petition saying, please let’s not have the gay prides in the Disneyland parks?”
She added that many families “no longer feel safe” engaging with Disney over its embrace of LGBTQ characters.
Chapek didn’t take the bait.
The fledgling company chair instead doubled down on Disney’s commitment to inclusion, before countering Farrow’s analysis of the falling stock value with the more likely suggestion that the declining numbers were related to the global outbreak of COVID-19.
“At Disney we strongly believe we should reflect in our creative content the diversity that we find in our fanbase and our audience,” Chapek said. “I believe that will continue with an increased commitment as we move forward. We want to represent our audience. We believe we want to tell stories that our audience wants to hear that reflects their lives.”
“In terms of the stock price, there’s a lot of reasons why the stock price might be down 20 per cent that has nothing to do with the issue you raised,” he continued. “It might have more to do with coronavirus and the worldwide pandemic that we’re facing.”
His response was greeted with enthusiastic applause from the crowd of shareholders in attendance.
Disney has been increasing LGBTQ representation in its contents in recent years, introducing the Disney Channel’s first recurring LGBTQ storyline on the show “Andi Mack” in 2017, and featuring same-sex couples on the cartoons “Doc McStuffins” and “Star vs. The Forces of Evil.” It raised the ire of conservatives and challenged censors in foreign markets with anti-LGBTQ guidelines by including a character that was strongly implied to be LGBTQ in its live-action remake of “Beauty and the Beast,” and has included LGBTQ moments and characters in its Marvel and “Star Wars” films and shows. The current Disney/Pixar release “Onward” features an out lesbian character voiced by Lena Waithe, and there are reportedly out gay characters coming in the upcoming releases “Jungle Cruise” and Marvel’s “The Eternals.”
Conservative critics have continued to express homophobic outrage at even the slightest suggestion of LGBTQ inclusion from Disney, with anti-LGBTQ groups petitioning the company to stop hosting Pride events at their parks and a call for a boycott from the misleadingly-named One Million Moms.
Despite its efforts toward inclusion, the company has also taken fire from critics and LGBTQ advocates for lagging behind, by providing characters with LGBTQ identities that are hidden, subtle, or token and failing to embrace the fan-fueled LGBTQ identification of characters such as Elsa in “Frozen” or Finn and Poe in the rebooted “Star Wars” franchise.
Chapek’s unequivocal response to Farrow at last Wednesday’s meeting is being interpreted as a signal of the company’s commitment to more representation.
The 2026 World Pride March was held on Saturday, Aug. 8 in Amsterdam. Tens of thousands of participants marched from Martin Luther Kingpark to the grounds of the Pride Village at Museumplein.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
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The weekly drag show “Daddy Issues” was held at Kiki on Wednesday, Aug. 5. Performers included Evry Pleasure, Indiana Bones and Tiara Missou-Sidora.
(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)
Books
Something’s off about Dad. When is it time to step in?
‘When Memory Fades’ can help when families face dementia
‘When Memory Fades’
By Nathaniel Chin, MD
c.2026, St. Martin’s Essentials
$30/422 pages
Mom called you in a panic the other day.
She’d lost her keys and by the time you arrived to help, she’d found them. In the refrigerator.
These kinds of things keep happening, not often but often enough, and you don’t know quite what to worry about. But in the new book “When Memory Fades” by Nathaniel Chin, MD, you’ll learn about the journey ahead, for both of you.
You can’t remember why you walked into a room. You got lost last week, going to the bank. Popular wisdom says that things like that are normal as we age, but Chin says that’s not true – although the answer may not be a worst-case scenario, either. Yes, memory problems could just be signs of stress, dehydration, or lack of sleep – or is it time to see a doctor?
Chin says maybe, yes.
He was working his way through medical residency when his father, a geriatrician in Madison, Wisc., was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Chin, now a geriatrician, was blindsided, but that diagnosis also changed his life.
Here, he writes about the brain, and how Alzheimer’s and dementia are diagnosed, explaining that dementia has many faces and, depending on a doctor’s evaluation, memory problems might be slowed or improved. He shares his father’s illness with readers, but he also writes about his mother, a steadfast, steady caretaker.
Her story reminds reader-guardians to care for themselves, too.
Know how to talk the talk, so that you can have “a more productive” conversation with your doctor. Understand that there’s nothing “normal” about dementia or Alzheimer’s. Know the statistics – African Americans are affected with dementia twice as much as whites – and know how to lower your risks. Learn here what questions to ask, how to break the news to everyone, and any legal matters that will be important soon. And know how to tend to you.
Says Chin, “The best action you can take is to educate yourself… The more you understand, the better equipped you are to make sound judgments.”
Something’s off about Dad, just a lot of little things that don’t add up. When is it time to step in? “When Memory Fades” can help you decide.
Wise, wide-spread, comprehensive, and compassionately helpful, this is a book you can read and then take it to the doctor with your loved one. It’s a book that makes sense when nothing else does, and its biggest feature is that it smoothly transitions from easy-to-grasp science and charts, to gentle coaching for caregivers. Author Nathaniel Chin, MD writes with storytelling, humility, grace, and experience from both sides of the Alzheimer’s/dementia issue, and his words are reassuring but also urgent. Learn, but don’t wait, he says. Know how to safeguard yourself. See your doctor, and don’t fear testing. Watch for signs of depression. And never, ever stop asking for help.
Read those last seven words, and find “When Memory Fades” now. It’s a book to have on your shelf, whether you’re 45 or 95 because, as you’ll see, dementia happens and knowledge is key.
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Calendar: August 7-13
