Issues@Hand
AFA initiatives, Christian activism, news briefs
September 1996 – The gates at Disney theme parks are still open, movies branded with the familiar swirl of the Disney signature are still playing at theaters, and the Disney front office continues to present a public front of arrogance that anyone would dare have the audacity to question its commitment to family and call for a boycott of Disney. That’s the public swagger, but actions within the company show more than a passing concern about the rebellion of America’s families to the product and policies at Disney.
Disney execs take leadership role in pro-homosexual Hollywood group
The most severe criticism of Disney comes because of its prominent support of homosexuals, including domestic partner benefits, homosexual celebrations at its theme parks, and an inordinate number of homosexuals on the payroll. Disney continuously denies that homosexuals are treated any different than anyone else, but new information that the top man at Disney and two other company executives are leaders of a homosexual advocacy group casts serious doubts on the company’s assertions that it doesn’t cater to the homosexual lifestyle.
Hollywood Supports is a pro-homosexual group whose focus is to promote the homosexual agenda in the workplace. Michael Eisner, Chairman of the Walt Disney Company; Michael Ovitz, President of the Walt Disney Company; and Joe Roth, Chairman of Walt Disney Motion Pictures, all serve as members of the Hollywood Supports Board of Trustees. The Disney-endorsed group aims to tell companies how to form homosexual employee groups and implement insurance plans that pay for live-in homosexual partners. It also provides seminars such as “Sexual Orientation in the Workplace.” The 90-minute seminars cover a variety of topics all sympathetic to the homosexual agenda. Among the information provided are statements claiming homosexuality is a genetic behavior, not a matter of choice.
In another particularly telling part of the seminar Hollywood Supports offers companies methods for providing “equality in spousal benefits, including insurance, employee leave and employee assistance programs for gay employees’ spousal equivalents.” Notice in this excerpt from the seminar outline that it specifically seeks these benefits for gay employees’ spousal equivalents and has no mention of providing the same for a heterosexual employee’s spousal equivalent.
In addition to Eisner, Ovitz, and Roth, former Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg is also a member of the Hollywood Supports board and was serving during his tenure at Disney.
Disney VP seeks gay support
In addition to Disney’s involvement with Hollywood Supports, an internal link to the homosexual community has also been established. According to an article written by Art Toalston of the Baptist Press, an E-mail message originated from the office of Disney Vice President of Studio Operations Reid Cline and was distributed on a pro-homosexual Internet group based at Duke University. The message, signed by a secretary named Brad Bergman, asked people supporting Disney to write to Chairman Michael Eisner. The message first appeared on June 13 – the day after the Southern Baptist Convention voted to boycott Disney for its departure from family values. “It is yet another sad reflection of the state of Disney – that a Disney vice president’s office must turn to the homosexual Internet crowd to solicit support for the company’s drift away from family values and its buckling to the homosexual-activist agenda,” said Bill Merrell, SBC Executive Committee vice president for convention relations.
Two weeks later, another alert went out on various homosexual Internet news-groups – this one more desperate in tone and asking for immediate response by electronic mail. This plea says support for Disney from the homosexual community is needed because of the volume of correspondence Disney is receiving from families and people supporting the boycott. The electronic mail address listed once again goes to the company and to Bergman in the office of Disney V.P. Cline.
Disney’s corporate communications office refused to comment to the Baptist Press about the incident.
The fact Disney is running to the gay and lesbian crowd for backing should not come as a big surprise because it was that community that was the first to denounce those calling for the boycott. “Disney should be recognized and applauded for its stance on domestic partnerships...the Southern Baptist threat is a trumped-up cry for media attention,” said William Waybourn of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Rosemary Dempsey of the National Organization for Women groused, “It’s a serious form of hypocrisy when so-called religious people idealize a fairy-tale version of families, but want to close the Magic Kingdom to real-life lesbian and gay families.”
PR counterattack
While the public relations staffs at the pro-gay groups are striking fast to blunt the impact of a boycott on Disney, image builders within the company are also going on the offensive. Within days of the launching of a boycott by the Southern Baptist Convention, Disney Chairman Michael Eisner moved to counteract the religious backlash by naming the president of one of the country’s leading Catholic universities to the Disney board of directors.
Father Leo O’Donovan of Georgetown University is the Disney pawn in the high stakes game of public opinion, but beneath the surface is a track record that will make O’Donovan fit right in with the mouse management. Paul Weyrich, president of the Political NewsTalk Television Network says that prior to his appointment, O’Donovan had already defended Disney’s decision to extend benefits to homosexual couples because it was standard industry practice. According to Weyrich, the Georgetown leader also says he has no problem with Disney distributing the film Priest, even though it disparages the very faith O’Donovan practices. Other O’Donovan traits that Weyrich feels will help him fit into the Disney way of life included the approval of Gay Pride activities on the campus of Georgetown University.
The new board member won’t find a friendly reception to his appointment – not even in the ranks of his own faith. The Texas Catholic newspaper is asking its readers to join the boycott of the Walt Disney company. “…Disney clearly seeks to be all things to all people, even to those who have a vested interest in tearing apart the traditional concept of the family and the values that the family has held dear…” reads the editorial calling for the boycott. The publication, which serves more than 46,000 Catholic households in the Catholic Diocese of Dallas, says that even though Baptists and Catholics have some theological differences, both are aligned when it comes to issues involving family. The editorial also points out some of the moves the Catholic community has taken in regards to Disney. The Catholic Foundation, which is the largest private Catholic charitable and investment group in the U.S. is critical of the company. “Disney executives are simply not telling the public the truth about the kind of company they are,” said Frank Rauscher, chief operating officer of the Aquinas Funds.
Sex, drugs, and cinema
Disney executives may not be telling the truth but the company’s actions are making clear statements about what the new mind set is. Disney subsidiary Miramax Films brought the controversial film Trainspotting to the U.S. in August. Trainspotting is a European film glorifying the use of heroin. The feature is filled with scenes of sex, graphic drug use, and profanity. In fact, the film’s creative team calls the movie one of the most vulgar and profane movies of all time. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which hands out movie ratings, initially wanted to saddle Trainspotting with a NC-17 label. The movie was edited in order to achieve an “R” rating but with only four seconds trimmed from the film, the “R” rated version cannot be significantly different from the version from which the MPAA wanted to ban people 17 and under.
All work, no play
At another Disney film subsidiary, laws are being broken. Disney subsidiary Hollywood Pictures has been fined for violating California’s child labor laws. The California State Labor Commission says five child actors working on the film Jack were all kept on the job longer than the nine hours authorized by state labor regulations. Deputy labor commissioner William Fuller says the children involved ranged in age from 11 to 13.
A whole new world at ABC
Another example of Disney’s actions betraying their words comes from the realm of the marriage of Disney and ABC. Both claim each is autonomous of the other, but Disney is shaking the foundation of ABC – literally to the bottom floor of ABC’s news division. Visitors to the ABC News buildings in New York expected to find photos and biographies of Ted Koppell, Barbara Walters or David Brinkley lining the walls. What they got was another dose of the Disneyfication of ABC in the form of huge cardboard cutouts from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Disney appears bent on using ABC as more of a promotional tool and a new vehicle for its homosexual agenda. Recently, ABC programmers had to rearrange the network’s prime-time schedule on short notice. This shuffle was not to accommodate a late breaking news broadcast. Instead, everything at ABC was turned upside down to schedule a show on the making of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The Wall Street Journal reported discord among the top executives at ABC about the way the two companies are working together. An ominous sign that more of the Disney way of thinking is headed to ABC comes from the fact that Disney CEO Michael Eisner and President Michael Ovitz are both laboriously scrutinizing ABC’s programming plans.
The stage is set for families to choose between the Disney company line that all is well or the track record of Disney that flies in the face of Disney’s claim to be the same provider of quality family entertainment it always has been. 
