Arts & Entertainment
Disney heir comes out as Trans, denounces ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bills
Disney admitted that they had little experience with advocacy &, expressed regret for not doing more to support the LGBTQ+ community
Walt Disney Company heir Charlee Disney came out as Trans and denounced anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the U.S. in a recent Los Angeles Times interview.
Roy P. Disney, Disney’s father and the grandson of the company’s co-founder, revealed the news in a recent statement announcing the family would double its initial promise and match up to $500,000 in donations to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ rights organization. Last month, Charlee Disney said the family would match up to $250,000 at the organization’s annual gala in Los Angeles.
“Equality matters deeply to us,” Roy P. Disney said in a statement, according to the LA Times. “Especially because our child, Charlee, is transgender and a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community.”
The HRC gala was sort of a public coming out for them, Charlee Disney told Times columnist Robin Abcarian, given that they came out privately four years ago.
“I have a trans kid, and I love my kid no matter what,” Disney’s mother, Sheri, told the newspaper.
The news comes after Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law. The legislation will ban classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in grades K-3 and allow parents to sue schools or teachers.
Disney CEO Bob Chapek came under fire for his response to the bill, which many viewed as muted. After widespread criticism for declining to speak out against the legislation, Chapek ultimately apologized, publicly opposed the measure, paused all political donations in Florida and urged Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to reject the bill in a phone call.
After DeSantis’ signature, the company also released a statement, saying the bill “should never have been signed into law.” The governor later said the company “crossed the line,” adding that Disney has “alienated a lot of people now,” at a press conference in West Palm Beach.
Charlee Disney, 30, a high school biology and environmental science teacher, had a difficult journey, even with “all the apparent privilege in the world,” Abcarian wrote.
“I had very few openly gay role models,” they said. “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.”
Disney, who admitted that they had little experience with public speaking or advocacy, expressed regret for not doing more to support the LGBTQ+ community.
“I feel like I don’t do very much to help,” Charlee Disney told the Times. “I don’t call senators or take action. I felt like I could be doing more.”
They also widely condemned anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the U.S. So far this year, state lawmakers have proposed over 240 anti-LGBTQ+ bills – many of which target Trans youth – according to Freedom for All Americans’ legislative tracker.
Disney said that LGBTQ+ youth already face high rates of depression and anxiety, not to mention bullying and suicide. “Then to put something like this law on top of that? They can’t learn about their community and their history at school, or play sports or use the bathroom they want to use?”
Star of “Pose” Dominique Jackson was the special guest at the vogue party “Kunty” on Saturday, Oct. 5 at Bunker. DJ Mascari provided the music.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Theater
‘Acting their asses off’ in ‘Exception to the Rule’
Studio production takes place during after-school detention
‘Exception to the Rule’
Through Sunday, October 27
Studio Theatre
1501 14th St. NW, Washington, D.C.
$40-$95
Studiotheatre.org
After-school detention is a bore, but it’s especially tiresome on the last day of classes before a holiday.
In Dave Harris’s provocative new play “Exception to the Rule” (now at Studio Theatre) that’s just the case.
It’s Friday, and the usual suspects are reporting to room 111 for detention before enjoying the long MLK weekend. First on the scene are blaring “bad girl” Mikayla (Khalia Muhammad) and nerdy stoner Tommy (Stephen Taylor Jr.), followed by mercurial player Dayrin (Jacques Jean-Mary), kind Dasani (Shana Lee Hill), and unreadable Abdul (Khouri St.Surin).
The familiar is jaw-droppingly altered by the entrance of “College Bound Erika” (Sabrina Lynne Sawyer), a detention first timer whose bookworm presence elicits jokes from the others: What happened? You fail a test?
Dasani (who’s teased for being named for designer water) dubs Erika “Sweet Pea” and welcomes her to the rule-breaking fold. Together the regulars explain how detention works: The moderator, Mr. Bernie, shows up, signs their slips, and then they go. But today the teacher is tardy.
As they wait, the kids pass the time laughing, trash talking, flirting, and yelling. When not bouncing around the classroom, Dayrin is grooming his hair, while Dasani endlessly reapplies blush and lip gloss. At one point two boys almost come to blows, nearly repeating the cafeteria brawl that landed them in detention in the first place.
It’s loud. It’s confrontational. And it’s funny.
Erika is naively perplexed: “I thought detention was quiet. A place where everyone remembers the mistakes that got them here and then learns how to not make the same mistakes again.”
For room 111, the only connection to the outside world is an increasingly glitchy and creepy intercom system. Announcements (bus passes, the school’s dismal ranking, the impending weekend lockdown, etc.) are spoken by the unseen but unmistakably stentorian-voiced Craig Wallace.
Dave Harris first conceived “Exception to the Rule” in 2014 during his junior year at Yale University. In the program notes, the Black playwright describes “Exception to the Rule” as “a single set / six actors on a stage, just acting their asses off.” It’s true, and they do it well.
Miranda Haymon is reprising their role as director (they finely helmed the play’s 2022 off-Broadway debut at Roundabout Theatre Company in New York). Haymon orchestrates a natural feel to movement in the classroom, and without entirely stilling the action on stage (makeup applying, scribbling, etc.), the out director gives each member of the terrific cast their revelatory moment. In a busy room, we learn that Tommy’s goofiness belies trauma, that Mikayla is admirably resourceful, and most startling, why Erika, the school’s top student, is in detention.
Mr. Bernie is clearly a no-show. And despite his absence, the regulars are bizarrely loath to leave the confines of 111 for fear of catching yet another detention. Of course, it’s emblematic of something bigger. Still, things happen within the room.
While initially treated as a sort of mascot, awkwardly quiet Erika becomes rather direct in her questions and observations. Suddenly, she’s rather stiffly doling out unsolicited advice.
It’s as if an entirely new person has been thrown into the mix.
Not all of her guidance goes unheeded. Take fighting for instance. At Erika’s suggestion, St.Surin’s Abdul refrains from kicking Dayrin’s ass. (Just feet from the audience gathered for a recent matinee in Studio’s intimate Mead Theatre, Abdul’s frustration resulting from anger while yearning for a world of principled order is palpable as evidenced when a single tear rolled down the actor’s right cheek)
Set designer Tony Cisek renders a no-frills classroom with cinder block walls, a high and horizontal row of frosted fixed windows that become eerily prison like when overhead fluorescent lighting is threateningly dimmed.
Still, no matter how dark, beyond the classroom door, a light remains aglow, encouraging the kids to ponder an exit plan.
The Washington Commanders are proud to welcome the LGBTQ community for the fourth annual “Pride Night Out!” on Sunday, Oct. 6 at 1 p.m. at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md.
This will be a matchup against the Cleveland Browns. The Pregame Pride Party Pass and Club level game ticket includes premier party location and club level ticket all-you-can-eat buffet, beer and wine, an exclusive Commanders Pride T-shirt, pregame entertainment and a postgame photo on the field.
More ticket options are available and $5 of every ticket goes back to Team DC. For more information visit the Commanders’ website.
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