Disney Can Reclaim Its Magic by Dropping Divisive Partnership
Washington, D.C. — At today’s annual shareholder meeting of the Walt Disney Company, a representative of the National Center for Public Policy Research’s Free Enterprise Project (FEP) will present a proposal calling on Disney to reconsider its participation in the controversial Corporate Equality Index (CEI) sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).
https://nationalcenter.org/programs/free-enterprise-project/
https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/app/uploads/2025/01/2025-Proxy-Statement.pdf#page=92
“When corporations take extreme positions, they destroy shareholder value by alienating large portions of their customers and investors,” FEP writes in its statement supporting the proposal. “This proposal provides Disney with an opportunity to move back to neutral.”
The statement goes on to explain:
Though HRC – which Disney has a paid partnership with – claims the CEI is just a “benchmarking tool on corporate policies… pertinent to LGBT employees,” in reality, it functions like a social credit score for corporations. The threat of a bad score is wielded against corporations to force them to do the political bidding of HRC and others (like GLSEN, the Trevor Project and GLAAD, which Disney also has paid partnerships with) that seek to sow gender confusion in children, encourage irreversible surgical procedures on confused teens, effectively eliminate girls’ and women’s sports and bathrooms and roll back longstanding religious liberties.
FEP Executive Director Stefan Padfield will tell Disney investors today that Disney has the opportunity to join a trend of other large corporations dropping their participation in HRC’s CEI: https://nationalcenter.org/ncppr/staff/stefan-padfield/
In recent months 19 name-brand companies, totaling over 4 trillion dollars in market cap, have dropped the HRC’s CEI. Companies like Tractor Supply, John Deere, Harley Davidson, Polaris, Indian Motorcycle, Lowe’s, Ford, Coors, Stanley Black & Decker, Jack Daniels, Caterpillar, Toyota, Walmart, McDonald’s, META, Target, Accenture,
Pepsi, and AT&T.Pushing on children the belief that they can be born in the wrong body, and that such beliefs should be affirmed by minors taking puberty blockers or even undergoing experimental surgeries, sometimes behind the backs of their parents, is bad for business, and you can help Disney get out of that business by voting in favor of our proposal.
While the Walt Disney Company numbers management proposals, it does not number shareholder proposals, which arguably makes it more difficult for shareholders to identify them.
FEP recommends Disney shareholders vote YES on the National Center’s proposal, “Consideration of Participation in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index,” and YES on the Bowyer Research proposal, “Report on Risks Related to Selection of Ad Buyers and Sellers.”
FEP recommends Disney shareholders vote NO on As You Sow’s proposal, “Report on Climate Risks to Retirement Plan Beneficiaries”.
FEP, the original and premier opponent of the woke takeover of American corporate life, aims to
push corporations to respect their fiduciary obligations and to stay out of political and social
engineering. More information about this proposal can be found in FEP’s mobile and web app,
ProxyNavigator.
About
The National Center for Public Policy Research, founded in 1982, is a non-partisan, free-market, independent conservative think-tank. Ninety-four percent of its support comes from individuals, less than four percent from foundations and less than two percent from corporations. It receives over 350,000 individual contributions a year from over 60,000 active recent contributors. Contributions are tax-deductible and may be earmarked for the Free Enterprise Project. Sign up for email updates at https://nationalcenter.org/subscribe/. Follow us on Twitter at @FreeEntProject and @NationalCenter for general announcements. To be alerted to upcoming media appearances by National Center staff, follow our media appearances Twitter account at @NCPPRMedia.
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Wendi Berman
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WBerman@NationalCenter.org
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202-379-8125
DFaoro@NationalCenter.org
