Gay Disney Employee Condemns Company’s Fight Against Florida’s Parental Rights In Education Law, Warns They Are “Planning To Go Even Harder With Gender Ideology”

Spencer Baculi |

Apr 7, 2022

Despite claiming to be doing so on the behalf of team members such as himself, Disney’s recent vow to fight for Florida’s newly-passed Parental Rights in Education law to “be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts” has been condemned by one of their own gay employees.

Writing under his real name, Walt Disney World Merchandise Presentation Specialist Gary Lucia – whose LinkedIn profile shows him ‘liking’ a number of recent posts by others speaking out against Disney’s activism – took to Substack on March 30th to publish a lengthy essay declaring, “I Am a Gay Employee at Walt Disney World. Disney Does Not Speak For Me.”

Beginning with a reflection on his own struggles growing up as a gay individual, Lucia admits that he “can understand why many of my fellow gay cast members were upset when they heard that the Florida government had voted for the ‘Don’t Say Gay Bill’,” speculating that “they looked back on their own childhoods and wondered how things would have been different if someone had told them it was OK to be gay. Or maybe some of them came out as gay in their teens, resulting in them being abused or even thrown out of the house by their parents.”

“These are sad stories and I empathize with the emotions involved, so I understand why there was a visceral reaction to hearing that Florida was enacting a bill that stopped teachers from saying the word ‘gay’,” he continued. “Except for one thing: it is not true.”

“As most people hopefully know by now, the bill does not mention the word ‘gay’ once,” he correctly clarified to his readers. “The purposely misleading nickname ‘Don’t Say Gay’ was a Trojan horse. It drew people in and got them all fired up because they thought the bill was attacking gay people.”

He then pointed out, “The detractors of the bill used this to lure you in, but they wanted to hide the gender ideology part of the bill, which is what people should really be concerned about. The public was being played, and gay people were being used as pawns.”

“Across the nation and the world, gender non-conforming boys and girls are being pushed into believing they are trans,” he asserted. “THIS is what is at the core of teaching ‘gender identity’.”

Making himself adamantly clear, Lucia affirmed, “As a gay man and employee of Disney, I support the Parental Rights in Education Act and feel the need to go on record that I do NOT agree with the Disney ‘LGBTQ+’ leaders and groups that purport to speak on my behalf.”

“Why? Because there is no such thing as an ‘LGBTQ+ Community’,” he explained. “There can’t be, because within those letters are obvious conflicts—people who are same-sex attracted vs. people who deny the biological reality of sex.”

To this end, Lucia avowed, “Let me speak for myself: I am not LGBTQ, LGBTQ+, or LGBTQIA+. I am gay, just GAY.”

“While my fellow cast members have been expressing their outrage that Disney is not doing enough to fight this bill, I have been watching over the past year or so as Disney continues to push gender ideology on its employees,” he added. “As gender ideology offends me as a gay man, I feel that Disney is doing TOO MUCH.”

On the subject of gender ideology, Lucia revealed that on March 21st, “Disney held a ‘Reimagine Tomorrow Conversation,’” wherein he claimed, “We were promised a conversation in which Disney would ‘get real’, but I watched the event and did not hear a lot of reality being discussed.”

“I did not hear the biological reality of sex mentioned,” he recalled. “I did not hear any acknowledgment of the social contagion currently happening in which there has been an astonishing increase in the number of teenage girls who are identifying as trans. I did not hear any acknowledgment of adolescents who are gender-nonconforming and identify as trans that eventually desist and go on to be gay and lesbian adults.”

However, Lucia noted, “I did hear the word ‘queer’ thrown around a lot. I heard from an ESPN contributor about the support for Lia Thomas and trans athletes in women’s sports (which I do not agree with). I heard the bill being called ‘hateful and discriminatory legislation’,” the last of which he clarified, “I do not believe this is true.”

“I didn’t hear any discussion about the impact of social media and how that is likely a contributing factor in the increase in kids identifying as non-binary, trans, queer, etc,” he further listed. “I didn’t hear any discussion about woke homophobia among today’s youth, in which ‘cis gay’ is used a slur and being a lesbian is not ‘cool’. […] I didn’t hear any honesty about what is meant when people say ‘LGBTQ kids are being denied gender affirming healthcare’.”

“Here is what the phrase ‘gender affirming healthcare’ means,” Lucia elaborated. “A child learns about the world of gender identity and decides she is really a boy. She tells her doctor/psychiatrist/therapist she is a boy. This is ‘affirmed’, no questions asked. No discussions, no talk therapy, just affirmation.”

“She is treated like a boy, with a new name and new pronouns from then on. This can lead to breast binders and puberty-blocking drugs,” he professed.

Lucia continued, “All of this can happen at school with school administrators, keeping the parents completely in the dark. Which is why this bill is so important. I believe in protecting children and that begins with making sure their parents can be their protectors from this abuse.”

“Why would we ever discuss gender identity to children?” he questioned. “Why would we tell kids they have been ‘assigned’ a sex at birth, and that they can change this throughout life? Why are we promoting ‘feminine and masculine’ gender stereotypes?”

“To young children, this is confusing and inappropriate,” he maintained. “Children should be children; they shouldn’t be concerned with matters of sex, gender, and sexuality. The Parental Rights bill prevents this madness from happening.”

“Childhood is (and should be) a time of discovery and self-discovery, and by all means kids should be encouraged to express themselves by wearing what they want, doing crazy things with their hair, etc,” Lucia added. “But in school we teach FACTS. And the fact is that there are only two sexes.”

Returning to the subject of Disney’s DEI ‘conversation,’ Lucia affirmed that it “did little to reassure me that the situation at Disney was going to get better,” but “rather, it ignited a fire in me to speak out because I could see it is going to get much much worse.”

“It was made clear to me that Disney is planning to go even HARDER with gender ideology. And the more Disney pushes gender ideology, the more I am going to push back. I have been advised by people close to me to keep my mouth shut; just go along with it; it’s like this everywhere; this is the world we live in now. But I just can’t accept this. I feel really disgusted with what is happening.”

Addressing the question of “Why am I writing this?,” Lucia posited, “Because as a gay man, I am fed up with being lumped into the umbrella term ‘LGBTQIA+’. I am tired of organizations and ‘allies’ who have taken it upon themselves to speak for me.

“I am horrified and disgusted with the abuse that is happening to gay and lesbian people in our country and around the world. I want to denounce the abuse of children that I see happening. I am letting it be known: You will no longer do this in my name,” he declared.

“I am writing this to let heterosexual people know that you are allowed to speak up, ask questions, and call out misinformation,” he assured. “You are not ‘homophobic’ or ‘transphobic’ if you have questions or are confused.”

“You are allowed to disagree with people,” he asserted. “I think most people want to believe they are open-minded, but being open-minded does not mean going along with everything—even if it is coming from the ‘side’ you usually take.”

“I am writing this to other gay men and lesbians who feel the same way I do, and I plead with you to speak up and make your voice heard as well,” Lucia said. “I am writing this to the gay men and women who DON’T agree with me, and ask you to pause, reflect, and reconsider the blatant conflict between same-sex attraction and gender ideology. If it is something you have not considered before, it is time for you to start.”

“Most especially, I’m writing this for my family, friends, and coworkers who are parents of girls,” he pointedly cautioned. “Over the past decade, there has been a 4000% increase in teenage girls identifying as trans. This is not a case of more kids being their ‘true selves’; this is a social contagion that you need to be aware of.”

Ultimately, Lucia announced to his employers, “I REJECT your ‘LGBTQIA+ Community’ and refuse to participate or be included as a member.”

“‘LGBTQIA+’ is an abusive relationship, AND I WANT OUT,’” he concluded. “It is outlandish that Disney—DISNEY! The company world renown for family and kid-friendly entertainment— is endorsing teaching kids dangerous, destructive, unfounded, illogical gender ideology, and actively working to prevent parents from protecting their children.”

Leaked footage of Disney’s Reimagine Tomorrow Conversation did see Disney executives promise to include more gender ideology in Disney’s programming.

Walt Disney Parks & Resorts Diversity & Inclusion Manager Vivian Ware revealed the organization is removing gendered greetings.

She said, “Last summer we removed all of the gendered greetings in relationship to our live spiels.”

She explained, “So we no longer say, ‘Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls.’ We provided training for all of our cast members in relationship to that. So now they know it’s, ‘Hello, everyone’ or ‘Hello, friends.'”

Ware continued saying, “We’re in the process of changing over those recorded messages, and so many of you are probably familiar when we brought the fireworks back to the Magic Kingdom, we no longer say, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,’ We say, ‘Dreamers of all ages.'”

“So I love the fact that it’s opened up the creativity, the opportunity for our cast members to look at that. We have our cast members working with merchandise, working with food and beverage, working with all of our guest-facing areas, where perhaps we want to create that magical moment with our cast members, with our guests,” she said.

She then added, “And we don’t want to just assume because someone might be, in our interpretation, may be presenting as female, that they may not want to be called ‘princess.’ So, let’s think differently about how do we really engage with our guests in a meaningful and inclusive way that makes it magical and memorable for everyone.”

SCOOP: Disney diversity and inclusion manager Vivian Ware says the company has eliminated all mentions of “ladies,” “gentlemen,” “boys,” and “girls” in its theme parks in order to create “that magical moment” for children who do not identify with traditional gender roles. pic.twitter.com/OWsGTUoeCA

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) March 29, 2022

Another clip showed production coordinator Allen March, who has been working on Disney’s Moon Girl series admit to wanting to push gender and sexual orientation ideology through their children’s programming.

He said, “All this content is going to kids, who don’t know any of this. Even if they are in a household like Heath that has supportive parents, they’re still getting all of this information from media of what is normal. There’s a lot of power to that and it just needs to be acknowledged.”

NEW: Disney production coordinator Allen March, who says his team is committed to “exploring queer stories” and promoting “trans,” “bisexual,” and “gender nonconforming” characters, says kids are “getting all this information from the media” and “there’s a lot of power to that.” pic.twitter.com/rgxXgcIEwA

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) March 31, 2022

Lucia is not the only Disney employee to speak out against the company’s position against Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill.

An anonymous letter credited to Disney employees stated in part, “Disney shouldn’t be a vehicle for one demographic’s political activism. It’s so much bigger and more important than that.”

“More than ever, the world needs things that we can unite around. That’s the most valuable role The Walt Disney Company could play in the world at this time. It’s a role we’ve played for nearly a century, and it would be a shame to throw all of that away in the face of left-wing political pressure. Please don’t let Disney become just another thing we divide over,” the anonymous Disney employees stated.