By S.A. McCarthy

Once bent on incorporating woke into children’s media, Disney may now be reversing course and axing LGBT storylines. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney executives ordered dialogue referencing transgenderism and gender identity to be cut from the upcoming Pixar series “Win or Lose,” which centers around a co-ed children’s softball team. A Disney spokesman told the media, “When it comes to animated content for a younger audience, we recognize that many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline.”

Each episode of “Win or Lose,” which is slated to begin streaming on Disney+ in February, will reportedly focus on the off-the-field life of different characters — players, coaches, parents — in the week leading up to a major play-off. One episode late in the series’ first season was to include references to a transgender-identifying character’s gender identity. While that character will still feature in the show, all mention of the character’s gender identity or transgenderism has been removed.

FRC’s Meg Kilgannon celebrated the move, telling The Washington Stand, “This is a great sign that executives charged with children’s entertainment programming are rethinking their promotion of sexual identities to children. We need to keep up the public pressure to encourage businesses like Disney and Pixar to promote healthy storylines and character arcs rather than bending to the woke DEI/LGBT agenda.”

In the past, Disney executives and creative leaders have insisted on inserting LGBT content, even when threatened with boycotts. 2020’s “Onward” featured a character referencing her same-sex relationship. In 2022, Disney’s “Toy Story” spin-off “Lightyear” featured a kiss between two female characters. Projections for the film’s opening weekend performance were low, but “Lightyear” somehow managed to underperform, garnering a mere $20 million on its first day in cinemas. Ultimately, the film was a financial failure and cost Disney over $100 million at the box office.

Another 2022 Disney venture, “Baymax,” featured a transgender-identifying man recommending a particular brand of menstrual pads in a grocery store. The Disney+ streaming platform has also promoted drag shows, and the studio famous for making children’s films and shows has repeatedly hired LGBT actors and actresses, declared popular characters to be “genderfluid,” and done much more beside to promote gender ideology to children.

Disney’s insertion of LGBT ideology into children’s content is no accident, according to Disney executives and creative leaders. In a leaked video from internal Disney conferences in 2022, Disney Television Animation executive producer Latoya Raveneau admitted that she and “leadership” have been promoting a “not-at-all-secret gay agenda” and “adding queerness” to children’s programming. Production coordinator Allen March shared that he imposes quotas to ensure that Disney shows include “queer stories,” “gender non-conforming characters,” “LGBTQ+ characters,” and characters who are “trans,” “asexual,” and “bisexual.”

Later, March acknowledged that Disney’s programming does influence children. “All of this content is going to kids, who don’t know any of this,” he said. March added, “There’s a lot of power to that…” Disney General Entertainment president Karey Burke declared herself to be the mother of “two queer children actually, one transgender child and one pansexual child,” emphasized that Disney stories need more “LGBTQIA characters” in lead roles, and stated that she hopes to see LGBT and ethnic minority characters account for half of all Disney characters within the coming years.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Disney’s LGBT propaganda has proven unpopular with the vast majority of Americans. According to a Rasmussen Reports survey published earlier this year, over 70% of American adults agreed that Disney “should return to wholesome programming and allow parents to decide when their children are taught about sexuality” and 54% agreed that LGBT-themed programming is “inappropriate” for children.

In comments to The Washington Stand, Joseph Backholm, senior fellow for Biblical Worldview at Family Research Council, explained, “This move seems to suggest Disney is developing awareness that their penchant for left-wing activism is out of step with their customers.” He continued, “All stories contain a moral message. It would be wonderful if Disney and other media companies had conviction about using the power of story to make people desire goodness and truth.” Backholm added, “But if they are at least becoming hesitant to peddle the most destructive lies, that could be progress.”

In the face of growing backlash and the threat of boycotts, numerous corporations have begun backing away from woke LGBT promotion. After its disastrous partnership with transgender-identifying social media figure Dylan Mulvaney resulted in a crippling boycott, Bud Light decided to ditch LGBT activism and hire “anti-woke” comedian Shane Gillis as its new brand representative. Other corporations like Walmart, Target, Lowes, John Deere, and others have walked back or completely abandoned their LGBT and DEI activism. It is just possible that Disney may be next in line to leave woke behind.

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

Image credit: Sharon Hahn Darlin, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.