Do you remember the days when you would gather in the living room with your family on a Sunday night with popcorn and blankets and turn on a Disney movie? You could trust that they, along with Pixar and Dreamworks, could provide you with quality, family entertainment. Well, as time has gone on, it is becoming increasingly uncommon for families to have that quality time together. More often, everyone will be isolated on their own devices when they watch movies or shows or play games.
Recently on Trending with Timmerie, Timmerie explained why that phenomenon is so dangerous for families, especially younger ones, and why Disney’s actions are breaking parents’ trust.
Disney has been in the news recently because CEO Bob Chapek put in a call to Florida Gov. Ron Desantis to discuss the recent Parental Rights in Education bill, commonly referred to as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The bill itself would protect children ages 3-8 from hearing about LGBTQ issues, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sexuality in the classroom.
The bill reads, “Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
Many interpreted this bill as a bigoted attempt to silence anybody who considered themselves part of the LGBTQ community, but that’s not the idea at all. In fact, the objective was to protect kids, regardless of background or situation, from hearing oversexualized conversations and topics discussed in the classroom, a place where parents are entrusting their children to the supervision of another adult. They do not have control over the curriculum or the ideas discussed, so the bill was signed as a protection for kids until they’re ready to hear about these topics, an age that should be left up to the determination of their parents.
Now, what does this have to do with Disney? Well, as described above, families are becoming increasingly relegated to their own devices for entertainment, but one safeguard parents thought they had was that they could trust Disney and their services like Disney+ to be wholesome content for their children. But when Bob Chapek calls the governor of Florida to tell him to stop pushing this bill, it makes you think about the type of content that Disney wants to share with your children, especially when you’re not looking.
“What this shows is that Disney has drawn a line in the sand…Disney is in the business of sexualizing kids, given that they want 3-year-olds to 8-year-olds to hear about the LGBTQ ideology. What is LGBTQ? It has to do with sexuality. Let’s be clear here,” said Timmerie. At the very core of this argument, kids should not be hearing about topics regarding sexuality because they’re too young.
In a recently leaked video call from Disney staff, you can hear employee after employee express their desire to get this law repealed. Why else would they want kids to be allowed to be exposed to sexually-implicit content if it wasn’t to feed it to their audience through their entertainment? Writers and executives have even admitted that through their work, they have slowly been introducing concepts regarding sexuality and “queerness” into Disney content.
Karey Burke, the president of Disney General Entertainment, said that she would like to see a minimum of 50% of Disney characters be either LGBTQ or members of some other minority. That is a large dose of people living a sexually-adverse lifestyle that your kid is going to observe, look up to, and potentially emulate, delivered to them directly via their childhood entertainment. What are the chances they get wrapped up in the LGBTQ ideology? What are the chances they exhibit sexual behavior earlier than the average child? Is that what you want for your kids?
Listen to the full segment below:
Tune in to Trending with Timmerie weekdays at 6pm CT