There has been growing speculation that Disney may finally abandon its woke agenda in an attempt to save the company. This author will have to see it to believe it. Over the past few years, Disney has seemed determined to destroy one of the most famous and enduring brands in the world.
Leaked internal documents and videos from 2022 revealed what executives themselves described as a “not-at-all-secret gay agenda.” Disney Television Animation producer Latoya Raveneau admitted to “adding queerness” to children’s programming, while production coordinator Allen March openly discussed imposing quotas to ensure shows included “queer stories,” “gender non-conforming characters,” and characters who were “trans,” “asexual,” and “bisexual.”
Disney’s Diversity and Inclusion Manager, Vivian Ware, also announced that the company would drop traditional terms like “ladies and gentlemen” or “boys and girls” in its theme parks to avoid alienating transgender children.
At the same time, the company faced backlash over several high-profile productions. Films such as Snow White (2025), Agatha All Along (2024), and The Acolyte sparked controversy for their progressive themes, while Strange World and Lightyear (2022) became lightning rods for criticism of Disney’s insistence on embedding LGBTQ+ storylines into mainstream content.
The financial fallout was staggering. Lightyear cost $200 million to make and ultimately lost Disney $106 million after earning just $267 million at the global box office against total expenses of $373 million. It was the lowest-grossing domestic opening for a Pixar film since Cars 2 (2011). Strange World fared no better.
With production costs exceeding $317 million, it grossed only $165 million, losing the studio more than $152 million. Together, the two films alone cost Disney nearly $300 million.
Disney’s involvement with LGBTQ+ themes is not new. In the early 1990s, Walt Disney World began hosting an annual Gay Day on the first Saturday in June. The event drew heavy criticism, with the Southern Baptist Convention boycotting Disney for nearly a decade and evangelist Pat Robertson even warning that a meteor would strike Orlando.
What is different now is the escalation into children’s programming and the internal admissions of deliberate “gay agenda” quotas. For conservatives, this shift crossed a line. They no longer see Disney as merely supporting adult LGBTQ+ rights but as actively trying to shape children’s sexual and gender identity development. This perception explains why today’s backlash is both stronger and more financially costly than in the past.
The controversy is compounded by changes in gender representation across Disney animation. Of the last seven Walt Disney Animation Studios features, only two, Strange World and Ralph Breaks the Internet, featured male characters as the focal point. Before the release of Elemental (2023), no female protagonist in a Disney children’s film had been written with a love story since Frozen in 2013.
That nearly decade-long gap reflected what some critics dubbed “the Frozen Effect”: the film not only delivered a cultural phenomenon but also marked Disney’s pivot away from male-centered tales toward strongly female-driven narratives. Subsequent female-led films included Moana (2016), Encanto (2021), and Turning Red (2022).
For critics, this emphasis on representation may be empowering in one sense but limiting in another, as male characters have been sidelined or increasingly portrayed in more feminine roles. Combined with LGBTQ+ themes, this broader cultural and creative shift has fed into the perception that Disney is prioritizing ideology over storytelling.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson accused Disney of pushing a sexual agenda on children. “They have a sexual agenda for six-year-old children,” he said. “You’d think that’s illegal in some way. It’s certainly immoral.” Later in the same program, Carlson criticized Disney executives for normalizing LGBTQ lifestyles through films and projects. “Sounds like the behavior of a sex offender,” he added. “Normal people do not sexualize underage children.”
Politicians also weighed in. Rep. Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican, tweeted, “Buzz Lightyear went woke. The movie went broke.”
But perhaps Disney’s bigger problem is trust. After two heavily agenda-driven films in a row, Strange World and Lightyear, many parents no longer believe Disney is committed to providing wholesome family entertainment. Families with young children felt the company was trying to “pull one over on them,” not once but twice. Once that trust is lost, it is extremely difficult to win back.
Polling data underscores this backlash. A Rasmussen Reports survey found that more than 70% of American adults said Disney should “return to wholesome programming and allow parents to decide when their children are taught about sexuality.” Fifty-four percent agreed that LGBT-themed programming is “inappropriate” for children.
A global survey by Redfield & Wilton Strategies found even stronger resistance to transgender representation in Disney films: 11% disapproved and 25% strongly disapproved, compared with 14% who approved and 20% who strongly approved.
A possible turning point came in August 2025 when Disney quietly settled its lawsuit with Gina Carano, who had been fired from The Mandalorian in 2021 over her conservative social media posts. In a surprise to fans, Lucasfilm even stated it looked forward to “identifying opportunities to work together” with her in the future, an indication that the company may be reconsidering its direction.
Around the same time, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Disney executives had ordered dialogue about transgenderism and gender identity to be cut from the upcoming Pixar series Win or Lose. Whether these moves signal a genuine change or merely a tactical retreat remains unclear. What is clear is that Disney’s experiment with politicized storytelling has left behind cultural division, alienated audiences, and hundreds of millions in financial losses.
On some level, this author hopes Disney will crash and burn and take their woke nonsense to the grave with them. On the other hand, as a kid who grew up in the ’70s, I think it would also be nice if they produced a Star Wars movie worth watching again.
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