Disney Stands by DEI Initiatives Amid Rising Criticism Over ‘Gender Ideology

The Walt Disney Company recently spoke out in favor of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), urging shareholders to vote against a proposal to cease the company’s participation in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI). The statement comes amid an anti-DEI push from President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans.

On Thursday, Disney held its Annual Shareholders Meeting, which invited shareholders to vote on six proposals. The first three, which Disney encouraged shareholders to vote for, passed: the election of directors, a proposal on executive compensation, and the appointment of public accountants. The others, which Disney recommended against, failed.

They included proposals for Disney to publish a report on the impacts of climate change and fossil fuel investments on retirement plans, for Disney to be “politically neutral” in advertising, and to pull out of the CEI.

The National Center for Public Policy Research presented the anti-CEI proposal at the meeting, arguing that by aligning with the Human Rights Campaign, Disney was making a statement against parental rights and for “gender ideology.” The proposal read:

Though HRC – which Disney has a paid partnership with3 – 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.

Receiving a perfect score on the CEI can only mean that Disney espouses and funds those divisive positions. Because, as clearly outlined in the CEI criteria, not advancing those efforts prevents companies from receiving a perfect score, as Disney continuously has.

Disney disastrously engaged in such activism when it inserted itself in the middle of a divisive public debate over the Parental Rights in Education Act. And when a leaked video conference between Disney executives revealed that Disney has a “not-at-all-secret gay agenda” and was “adding queerness” to children’s programming.

The shareholders cited other companies that had already pulled out of CEI, like Lowe’s, Ford, Jack Daniels, Harley Davidson, Tractor Supply, and Toyota: “Surely, Disney’s mistakes influenced their decisions.”

In its official 2025 proxy statement, Disney recommended shareholders vote against the proposal to pull out of CEI, arguing that it wouldn’t “provide additional value to shareholders.” In its statement, Disney doubled down on its commitment to DEI as a global company representing “a range of interests” and cultures–despite removing DEI pages from its website last month.

“We seek to provide transparency on a wide range of matters that are important to our investors and other stakeholders,” Disney wrote.

“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.”

“The Company has established oversight and governance of many matters important to investors and other stakeholders,” they continued. “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.”

This and two other shareholder-submitted proposals failed.

What do you think about The Walt Disney Company’s DEI statement? We would love to hear from you in the comments!