The Daily Populous Saturday March 22nd, 2025 evening edition
Authored by variety.com and submitted by shontamona

Disney investors on Thursday voted down a proposal that the entertainment giant cease its participation in a prominent LGBTQ rights organization’s equality ratings program.

The proposal — requesting that Disney “cease” its participation in the Human Rights Campaign’s annual Corporate Equality Index — was submitted by right-wing think tank National Center for Public Policy Research, through its Free Enterprise Project initiative. (The FEP calls itself “the original and premier opponent of the woke takeover of American corporate life.”)

“When corporations take extreme positions, they destroy shareholder value by alienating large portions of their customers and investors. This proposal provides Disney with an opportunity to move back to neutral,” the FEP’s proposal stated. It noted that since 2007, Disney has received a “perfect score” on the CEI, “which can only be attained by abiding by its partisan, divisive and increasingly radical criteria.”

In December 2023, Disney announced that, “Building on its legacy of workplace inclusion and support for the broader LGBTQIA+ community, The Walt Disney Company received a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation’s 2023-24 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), the nation’s foremost benchmarking survey and report measuring corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQIA+ workplace equality.”

In its proposal, the NCPPR’s Free Enterprise Project took particular aim at trans-rights efforts backed by HRC and others “like GLSEN, the Trevor Project and GLAAD” that the conservative group claimed “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 proposal also alleged that “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,” referring to Disney’s opposition to Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law in 2022.

Disney’s board recommended voting against the proposal to end its participation in the HRC’s Corporate Equality Index. Shareholders concurred, with only 1% of shares voted in favor the proposal, according to the preliminary tally.

In its opposing statement, the board said in part, “Given the Company’s existing practices to assess participation in transparency efforts and the Board’s oversight of ESG [environmental, social and governance] reporting, workforce equity matters and human rights policies, we do not believe this proposal would provide additional value to shareholders.”

In a statement, Eric Bloem, VP of corporate citizenship at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, said: “This vote gives us a clear statement of values from Disney’s shareholders. They know what we know — that despite all the noise, commitments to inclusion pay figurative dividends and help their literal bottom line.”

Thursday’s vote rejecting the anti-HRC proposal comes after Disney last month scaled back its diversity, equity and inclusion policies — as other companies also have done in the wake of the Trump administration’s aggressive push to eliminate DEI government and private-sector initiatives. In Disney’s case, the company announced that it was ending “Reimagine Tomorrow,” an initiative intended to promote stories from underrepresented communities.

On Thursday, Disney shareholders also voted down two other proposals: one to require the company to report on “climate risks to retirement plan beneficiaries” and another that would have required Disney to evaluate “how it oversees risks related to discrimination against ad buyers and sellers based on their political or religious status or views,” which cited a now-disbanded advertising-industry consortium that Elon Musk had accused of coordinating an “illegal” boycott of X (formerly Twitter).

In addition, shareholders at the annual meeting voted in favor of an advisory approval of the compensation packages for Disney’s named officers for the 2024 fiscal year. That included the pay package for CEO Bob Iger totaling $41.1 million for the period (up 30% from 2023), which included stock grants worth $18.25 million and stock options valued at $12 million. Iger’s contract is set to run through 2026, and the Disney board has said it expects to announce a CEO successor early next year. Shareholders also voted to reelect 10 Disney board members, including Iger, for one-year terms.

Iger, in his introductory remarks at the meeting, announced that the development of “Coco 2” is officially underway. The Pixar animated film is targeted for a 2029 theatrical release.

In the Q&A portion of the meeting, Iger was asked about Disney’s plans to adopt AI. He responded, “AI may in fact be the most powerful technology our company has even seen,” and that Disney is “just beginning to deploy it” for the purposes of making the business more efficient. However, according Iger, Disney is following three principles with respect to AI: that its IP is being protected; that its creators are “being respected”; and that its customers are “considered and valued.”

This week at Nvidia’s 2025 GTC developers conference, the AI chip company announced a collaboration with Disney Research and Google‘s DeepMind AI lab to develop Newton, described as an open-source physics engine that lets robots learn how to handle complex tasks with greater precision. Disney plans to used the AI-based technology to advance its robotic character platform that powers next-generation entertainment robots at its theme parks.

Overall, the 2025 Disney shareholder meeting was a far less dramatic affair compared with last year’s fireworks. At the 2024 gathering, investors decisively voted against activist investor Nelson Peltz’s bid to win two seats on the Mouse House’s board.

Plop_Twist on March 22nd, 2025 at 12:41 UTC »

“When corporations take extreme positions, they destroy shareholder value by alienating large portions of their customers and investors”

Indeed. Sounds like shareholders just agreed with you.

ItsOkILoveYouMYbb on March 22nd, 2025 at 09:23 UTC »

> “When corporations take extreme positions, they destroy shareholder value by alienating large portions of their customers and investors. This proposal provides Disney with an opportunity to move back to neutral,” the FEP’s proposal stated.

Uh, it's the FEP that is taking the extreme position.

Disney is taking the socially conservative position (I realize the oxymoron), as is evident by shareholder sentiment.

ShadowDurza on March 22nd, 2025 at 06:03 UTC »

So it's finally happening then, the Republican Party and Disney Corporation are going at each other's throats.

No matter what, this should be an interesting show, lol.