Among those gathered Wednesday to protest The Walt Disney Company at the entertainment brand’s Burbank headquarters was a current Disneyland cast member who voiced her concerns about her employer’s embrace of leftist ideologies.
“I’m a cast member here, for Disneyland, actually,” said the woman, speaking alongside rally organizer Sean Feucht from the bed of a truck. “I’ve been with them for quite a long time and it has gotten very political and it’s gotten very hard to be who you are. It’s gotten very hard to be someone who has conservative values.”
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The woman, who said she has worked for Disneyland since 2001, spoke directly to her fellow cast members, telling them it is OK to be someone who “believes in the right to choose,” referring to having political opinions that differ from those expressed by top executives within The Walt Disney Company.
“It’s OK to stand up for righteousness,” she continued. “[A]ny Disney cast members that are afraid to be bold, that are afraid to be courageous, stand up. It’s OK. You’re not alone.”
Some protest participants spoke with KTTV-TV about the event, which was organized by Feucht’s Hold the Line.
“I just want to protect children,” Marcos Zeladaa Rosas told the local news station. “I don’t think that Disney promoting these task forces that are trying to include the LGBTQ agenda on them at such a young age is a good idea.”
Another demonstrator said “right now is a time to boycott” Disney, particularly in the wake of CEO Bob Chapek’s vociferous condemnation of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill, which has been mischaracterized by leftist groups and the media as the “Don’t Say Gay bill.”
“Our job is to be parents,” said the mother, who drove to Burbank from Orange County. “Our job is to make sure [our kids] are watching appropriate things.”
One protestor, Shaun Frederickson, told KTTV-TV that Disney knows “children are moldable” and is doing what it can “to mold them into an image” in alignment with its progressive perspective.
Before the protest took place, Feucht spoke with CBN’s Faithwire, explaining the event came together within just a matter of hours. He said he felt compelled to host the rally because “parents across America were blindsided by the fact that Disney would enable people that are fighting for the sexualization of children, starting in kindergarten.”
All of this reached a tipping point when Chapek and his fellow Disney executives made the decision to vocally oppose the parental rights bill in Florida, which simply stipulates that educators cannot teach children from pre-K through third grade about gender identity or sexual orientation. Contrary to the media’s framing of the bill, which was recently signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), the legislation does not mention the word “gay” or outlaw its use.
Several hundred people participated in the Burbank protest Wednesday evening.
“A lot of people are really fired up,” said Feucht. “[I] think Christians sometimes — they get way too soft. They don’t realize that they’re powerful. We have a voice that can change things economically for Disney. We have a voice that can change things politically in this country. … We’re called to be salt and light in every part of society. So when issues like this happen, we don’t just back down; we have to stand up.”
In the lead-up to the protest, the Hold the Line founder said he applauds current Disney employees willing to take a stand against the nearly 100-year-old brand.
“You have people who have been working at Disney their whole lives, their whole career, [and] they’re believers, they love God, they love America,” he said. “They want to make content that’s safe for children and then Disney comes out with this crazy stance against DeSantis. They’re frustrated. And you know, I applaud them for their willingness to stand with us today. They might be risking their jobs, but they think it’s a more important issue.”
Feucht noted at the California rally outside The Walt Disney Company headquarters that he might soon host a similar event in Orlando, Florida, which is home to Disney’s sprawling 25,000-acre Walt Disney World Resort complex.
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