What would cause Christians to boycott The Walt Disney Company – the maker of some of the most enduring, wholesome, family entertainment products?
The facts in the case against the Magic Kingdom are unchallenged. In recent years Disney has established a record of products, policies and practices that insult the very families to whom it has traditionally catered.
THE REASONS:
· Priest (Miramax) is a pro-homosexual movie which depicts five Catholic priests as dysfunctionals and blames their problems on Church teachings. One priest is homosexual; a second is an adulterer; a third an alcoholic; a fourth demented; and the fifth is just plain mean and vicious. This film is blatantly anti-Christian.
The Advocate, 4/4/95; 4/18/95
Family Issues Alert, 3/30/95
· A Disney/ABC TV drama, Nothing Sacred, depicts a negative portrayal of the Roman Catholic priesthood.
. Mark Gill, the president of Miramax Films, a wholly-owned Disney subsidiary, admitted that his company thrives on racy, often violent promotion for its movies.
Daily Variety, 9/13/95
. After reading the script to Dogma, a movie that asserts that Christian beliefs are little more than mythology, Miramax principal Harvey Weinstein said, “Love it! We’ll release it on Good Friday.”
AR Democrat Gazette, 5/30/97
. Other objectionable films from Disney subsidiaries: Chasing Amy (lesbianism), Pulp Fiction (sex, violence), Color of Night (sex), Clerks (graphic language),Chicks in White Satin (lesbianism), Lie Down with Dogs (homosexuality), The House of Yes (incest).
· Danzig, an occult rock band, is signed to a Disney record label. Their music is laced with satanic themes.
Los Angeles Times, 10/18/96
. Chairman Michael Eisner and The Walt Disney Company are both donors to People For the American Way, a group whose stated goal is to “monitor and counter the divisive agenda of the Religious Right.”
PAW Annual Report
· Disney hired Victor Salva, a convicted child molester to direct its movie Powder. When Salva’s victim, Nathan Winters (now 20), publicized the hiring, some of the police officers who investigated the 1987 molestation were incredulous that Salva was working again as a movie director. “It just blows me away,” one police officer investing the case said. “He has serious signs of being a pedophile.” Responding to Winter’s demand that Disney fire Salva, Disney’s John Dreyer said, “What’s the point other than you just want to make headlines?”
Washington Times, 10/25/95
· Disney signed Martin Scorsese, director of The Last Temptation of Christ, Casino, Taxi Driver and other hard-edged films, to a four year-contract.
. Disney/Miramax originally purchased and intended to distribute Kids, a pornographic movie about early teen sex and drug abuse. Miramax later formed an independent company to distribute the film. It was rated NC-1 7 (formerly X) by the MPAA.
Daily Variety, 1/27/95
Wall Street Journal, 3/30/95
AP, 6/29/95
Newsweek, 2/20/95
· During the first weekend in June for the past seven years at the Orlando, Florida, theme park, Disney World has hosted a huge homosexual celebration called“Gay Day at the Magic Kingdom that Walt Built.” Patrons, including many families, have no prior warning that the event is taking place.Homosexuals are easily identified by wearing red T-shirts and allowed to flaunt their sexuality. In a cartoon, homosexual organizers portrayed Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck as homosexual lovers; and Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck as lesbians. Disney has not publicly objected. An Orlando Weekly writer says, “Take away gay workers … and Disney World becomes the planets largest self-service theme park.”
. Disney company executives, including Chairman Michael Eisner, are on the board of trustees of Hollywood Supports, a powerful homosexual advocacy group whose focus is to promote the gay agenda in the workplace.
PAW Annual Report
· Disney has extended company benefits to live-in partners of homosexual employees. The policy does not cover unmarried heterosexual couples who live together.
The Orlando Sentinel, 10/7/95
USA Today, 10/19/95
Daily Variety, 10/9/95
. The May, 1995, issue of Buzz magazine reported that a homosexual rights activist said that she was once told by Disney Chairman Michael Eisner that “as many as 40% of the company’s 63,000 employees might be gay.” The cover story entitled, “Disney Comes out of the Closet,” also reported that Disney has the “largest lesbian and gay employees organization in the entertainment industry.” and that the perception of Disney having many homosexual employees is “well founded.” In addition to Schumacher, Buzz names prominent openly homosexual Disney executives: production VP Lauren of Disney’s Hollywood Pictures; studio producer Laurence Mark; supervising animator Andreas Deja – the man responsible for the character of Gaston in Beauty and the Beast; Senior VP at Disney’s interactive division Steven Fields; Rick Leed, who heads the production company that produces the television sitcom, Home Improvement. Disney training coordinator, Jimi Ziehr said that at Disney’s Epcot Center in Orlando, Florida, “gays outnumber the straights at Futureland operations, and there’s nothing in the closet at Guest Relations.”
Buzz, 5/19/95
. Actors Ernie Sabella and Nathan Lane said that the characters they played (Timon, the meerkat, and Pumbaa, the wart hog) in the The Lion King are “the first homosexual Disney characters ever to come to the screen … “
New York Times, 6/12/94
. Eisner approved the storyline of the Disney/ABC series Ellen in which the lead character declares that she is a lesbian. Disney/ ABC leads the TV networks in the number of prime-time gay characters.
LA Times, 3/397
GLAAD online
· Disney supports Out, a homosexual magazine, with advertising.
OUT, 2/94
. Disney-owned Hyperion Press has published at least three books which promote homosexuality, including one aimed at teens.
. Disney hired avowed lesbian Lauren Lloyd to develop female and lesbian-themed movies.
OUT 11/94
· Disney/ABC’s Relativity has shown what is perhaps the most passionate lesbian kiss so far on network TV.
· Disney helped underwrite the 1993 Hollywood benefit for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, a homosexual activist group.
. Operating in sweatshop conditions, Disney subcontractors pay Haitian workers an unlivable wage (as little as 28 cents an hour) to make Mickey Mouse, Pocahontas and Lion King apparel. Attempts to negotiate for even meager improvements in salaries and conditions have been met with threats to relocate production to another country.
For more information about why Christian groups such as American Family Association, Southern Baptist Convention, Concerned Women for America, Focus on the Family and others are promoting the Disney boycott and for monthly updates on the progress of the boycott, call toll free :
1-888-326-4543, ext 0
Partial list of Disney brands:
. Walt Disney World
. The Disney Channel
. Disneyland
. Disney retail outlets
· Walt Disney brands
· Hollywood Records
. Buena Vista brands
· ESPN
. ABC TV and radio
. A&E TV Network
. Touchstone Pictures
. Lifetime TV Network
· Hollywood Pictures
· Disney Publishing
· Caravan Pictures
· Hyperion Press
. Miramax Films
. Chilton Publications
. Anaheim Mighty Ducks hockey team