Recently, Disney has received a healthy amount of criticism for not having an initial response to Florida's passing of a 'Don't Say Gay' bill. This bill was recently signed into law by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Because Disney is so well established in Florida and is a large part of peoples' lives here and all across the U.S., many people, including Disney employees, did not appreciate the silence from the company. Since then, Disney and it's CEO, Bob Chapek, have released statements confirming their support of the LGBTQ+ community and the willingness to protect and stand up for the rights of this community. However, it brings up the question of whether or not large corporations such as Disney have a duty and responsibility to take a stance on such political and social issues.
From an article from the New York Post, it says that, "The company has been beset with controversy from within as its left-leaning workers staged a walkout to protest management’s initial reluctance to denounce the measure while its conservative employees urged higher-ups to stay neutral on hot-button political issues."
There is no way that a large company like Disney can please everyone. There will always be people that disagree with corporate policies or stances; it's just how the world works. So when something controversial like this happens, it is important to analyze the situation and carefully act on it based on the information that is known. In this specific example, Disney did the right thing by releasing statements supporting the LGBTQ+ community, as they should, but the timing of their statements could have been improved in order to limit backlash and protests.
With such renown corporations, everything they do, and don't do, will be criticized by opposing people. Obviously, Disney eventually did the right thing by releasing statements to oppose the new bill, but it is interesting to think about what our nation would be like if there was not pressure for corporations to comment on political or social issues. What if companies stayed quiet on every issue that is out of their control and only focused on running their business based on their own corporate values? I think it is important for companies to show their support for such issues through their core values and operations instead of always having to release public comments and being criticized if they stay quiet. With their statements coming after facing backlash, maybe Disney wanted to stay silent to abstain from corporate involvement in the situation but felt pressured by opposing parties to say something.
I think that when companies get involved with politics even if they take the "right" stance in the eyes of the public, it ends up doing more harm than good. A soon as you start taking sides of political arguments, people expect you to take a side on everything and at that point it becomes easier to be criticized and receive backlash. I think you made an excellent point that companies shouldn't have to make public statements and should just reflect their ideals through their core values as a company. I also feel like when these companies make these statements, it is less about the actual issue as it is about shielding themselves from backlash. It is textbook slacktivism and…
I doubt corporations would want to appear neutral on political stances in all honesty. It seems like its often their go to strategy to generate positive PR in the face of poor environmental or labor practices. They still act like businesses and measure just how safe it is to make a certain political comment before they engage but overall it's easier for them to humanize themselves when supporting gay rights rather than trying to defend union busting or the fact that their employees can't afford to live near their parks. I think people are just catching onto the fact that they're using this strategy to force them to actually stand by political principles and affect policy, which I'm not opposed…
I agree with you that big corporations like Disney can’t make everyone happy with their decisions. However, I think Disney with their huge outreach and influence their support and voice matters in big policies like this. With Disney having political ties with some political candidates and their parks, their support speaks volume of their representation as a company. For their employees, the protest was a way to speak their minds and push a big corporation like Disney to do better.