In a bold move, The Walt Disney Company has reaffirmed its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) despite growing pressure from political figures, including President Donald Trump. This came during Disney’s Annual Shareholders Meeting, where the company urged shareholders to vote against a proposal to pull Disney out of the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI).
Disney’s continued support for DEI has drawn significant criticism, especially from those who view such practices as divisive. During the shareholders’ meeting, Disney presented its official stance on six major proposals, three of which passed easily—proposals for the election of directors, executive compensation, and the appointment of public accountants.
However, the remaining proposals, which Disney strongly opposed, failed. One such proposal was removing the company from the CEI, which Disney has supported for years. The National Center for Public Policy Research put forward the proposal, which framed Disney’s participation in the CEI as a statement against parental rights and in favor of “gender ideology.”
In part, the proposal read:
“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.”
The debate over Disney’s DEI initiatives isn’t new, but it has intensified in recent months, particularly after the company became a focal point in the debate over Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act. The controversy reached a boiling point when a video leaked in which a Disney executive discussed adding “queerness” to children’s programming, something critics dubbed the company’s “not-at-all-secret gay agenda.”
Disney issued a statement in its 2025 proxy filing strongly opposing the proposal. The company argued that pulling out of the CEI would not add “additional value to shareholders” and emphasized its commitment to DEI as part of its global business model.
“We seek to provide transparency on a wide range of matters that are important to our investors and other stakeholders,” Disney’s statement read. “As a global company, our stakeholders care about a range of interests with respect to the Company’s policies, practices, and performance. Our Global Public Policy team, together with Human Resources, Investor Relations and other teams with subject matter responsibilities, regularly assesses how to provide effective transparency, including through participation in third-party and collaborative initiatives, and voluntary surveys.”
Disney’s DEI commitment has also faced internal scrutiny. In an unexpected move last month, the company removed DEI-related pages from its official website, leading some to question whether the Mouse was attempting to quietly distance itself from its previous public commitments to diversity and inclusion. However, despite the website change, Disney maintained its public commitment to DEI–at least regarding the CEI partnership.
“The Company has established oversight and governance of many matters important to investors and other stakeholders,” Disney continued in its statement. “The Compensation Committee oversees workforce equity matters and receives reports at least annually from the Human Resources group on such matters. In addition, the Governance and Nominating Committee oversees the Company’s environmental, social and governance (‘ESG’) programs and reporting and regularly receives a report from Global Public Policy on ESG matters, including the Company’s voluntary ESG disclosures…Given the Company’s existing practices to assess participation in transparency efforts and the Board’s oversight of ESG reporting, workforce equity matters and human rights policies, we do not believe this proposal would provide additional value to shareholders.”
Shareholders rejected the proposal to withdraw from the CEI and two other proposals related to “politically neutral” advertising and climate change.
What do you think of The Walt Disney Company’s statement about DEI? Share your opinion with Disney Dining in the comments.
Here is the problem with these DEI and other programs. People are hired not on abilities or being the best at what they do, they are hired for the wrong reasons. Look at how many rides and other places at Disney are having problems, breakdowns, fires, poor customer service, and the lower quality of movies dis,ey is putting out now. What will it take before upper management and stockholders will realize the damage there programs are doing to thier company.