Most people don't view as anti-gay or anti anything. I'm living proof that there are many people in positions of power within Disney that are, in fact anti-gay. You can cite many of the things the company has done in the past to prove this. Such as booting a same sex couple from a Tomorrowland dance floor at DL because they were dancing together.
I had a great job as the Store Manage for the
Disney Store on Pier 39 in San Francisco. My district manager loved me until she found out that I was gay. It was not anything that I hid from her. She just never bothered to take any interest in me or my life. I thought it was the professional separation that forced her to be this way.
In July of 2001 she gave me a wonderful review and said how much she enjoyed having me on her team. Called me the perfect fit for Disney and said I would go far with the company. A few weeks later, I mentioned my partner at a meeting with her and other managers (one of those "everything said here is confidential" meetings), and everything changed.
I found out from a fellow manager that she was asking them after the meeting if I that meant I was gay. They said yes, because they didn't think it was a big deal.
From that day on, her behavior towards me changed. She made up reasons to write me up, threaten my job, turn her boss against me, and eventually fired me. I got to see the ugly side of her, and the ugly side of Disney. When I lost my job, I was blacklisted. The managers who were my friends would not talk to me out of fear for their jobs. My Cast Members, who I was very close to were also warned not to have contact with me or they would pay a price. Human Resourses sided with her and the regional director for a while.
I was a great manager (she even said so), but the fact that I was gay was something that she could not handle, and she got rid of me because of it.
I was once a Disney cheerleader like thousands of people, many of whom use these boards. But like thousands more, I have personally experienced the dark side of the Walt Disney Company. Even with the perks that came as a Disney manager, I spent thousands of dollars on their product. Today I am a different person. I am a better person because of what happend. I have moved on and hold no grudges against Disney for what they did to me. They are what they are.
But I am now free to be critical of Disney because I have been privy to the inner-working of the company from many different angles. I visit the parks on occasion, and for me, that is where my interest in the company ends.
For those of you who don't see how Disney could be "anti-gay", you're not supposed to see it. They hide it very well, as do most companies with similar views. But all I would ask is that you don't go around singing praises for a company that you know very little about. They don't sing yours.
