logo
Disney shareholders overwhelmingly reject anti-DEI proposal

Disney shareholders overwhelmingly reject anti-DEI proposal

USA Today20-03-2025

Disney shareholders overwhelmingly reject anti-DEI proposal Disney shareholders overwhelmingly rejected an anti-DEI proposal calling for the entertainment giant to drop participation in an LGBTQ+ survey.
Show Caption
Hide Caption
DEI: Explaining the diversity, equity and inclusion debate
Initiatives for diversity, equity, and inclusion are facing bans across the United States.
Walt Disney shareholders overwhelmingly rejected a proposal calling for the entertainment giant to drop its participation in a benchmark index used to rank companies on how friendly their policies are to LGBTQ+ people.
The investor proposal presented Thursday at Disney's annual meeting by the National Center for Public Policy Research, which describes itself as a non-partisan independent conservative think tank, urged Disney to resume a 'neutral' stance in political matters.
Disney's perfect score in the annual Corporate Equality Index survey from LGBTQ+ advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign was due to a 'partisan, divisive, and increasingly radical' agenda, the proposal said.
In its proxy statement, the company said the shareholder proposal was unnecessary. 'We do not believe this proposal would provide additional value to shareholders,' the company's board said.
The proposal fetched 1% of the vote, according to a preliminary tally.
Stefan Padfield, executive director of the National Center for Public Policy Research's Free Enterprise Project, blamed institutional shareholders and company management. The think tank regularly introduces anti-DEI measures.
'It is not surprising that our proposal received low support, given the concerns we have about bias and conflicts of interest infecting the votes and recommendations of the Big 5 asset managers and proxy advisors, as well as the company's management,' he said in a statement to USA TODAY.
Corporate America's embrace of LGBTQ+ rights was the result of decades of protests and boycotts from LGBTQ+ activists that transformed once indifferent, even hostile, companies into powerful allies.
In recent years, big brands stepped up to promote LGBTQ+ equality with more inclusive benefits and policies. The HRC's Corporate Equality Index played a key role in ushering that social change.
'This vote gives us a clear statement of values from Disney's shareholders,' said Eric Bloem, vice president of corporate citizenship at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. 'We know that 93% of LGBTQ+ workers believe that scoring 100 on the Corporate Equality Index communicates support of the LGBTQ+ community – those are current and future employees and customers. Disney shareholders recognize this.'
Following the backlash against Bud Light and Target over Pride-related merchandise, corporations have come under mounting pressure to disassociate themselves from the Human Rights Campaign as gay and trans rights emerges as a flashpoint in the nation's culture wars.
As part of his campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion policies in corporate America, conservative influencer Robby Starbuck has targeted participation in the survey. AT&T, Lowe's, Ford, Target and Walmart are among the companies that have dropped participation.
Disney publicly clashed with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, for opposing the state's so-called 'Don't Say Gay' law, which limits classroom discussion of sexual orientation.
It recently rolled back some of its DEI policies, as have other Hollywood studios, as the Trump administration pushes to eradicate DEI in the government and in the private sector. It said it would end 'Reimagine Tomorrow,' an initiative to promote storylines from underrepresented communities and said it would remove a trans athlete storyline from a Pixar animated series.
Padfield said the DEI rollbacks suggest the company is "slowly distancing itself" from "leftist radicalism."

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

ICE raids accelerate, protests spread
ICE raids accelerate, protests spread

The Hill

time8 minutes ago

  • The Hill

ICE raids accelerate, protests spread

Evening Report is The Hill's P.M. newsletter. Sign up here or subscribe in the box below: Thank you for signing up! Subscribe to more newsletters here THE WHITE HOUSE vowed Wednesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids would continue 'unabated,' as protests spread from Los Angeles into other major American cities. Demonstrations have sprung up in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Chicago, Austin, Denver, San Francisco and other major cities. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) sought to rally the nation to his side, as U.S. Marines prepared to join National Guard troops dispatched to keep the peace in Los Angeles. 'This isn't just about protests here in Los Angeles,' Newsom said in a direct-to-camera address. 'This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes.' The White House warned protesters there would be consequences if demonstrations in other cities get out of hand. 'Let this be an unequivocal message to left-wing radicals in other parts of the country who might be thinking about copy-catting the violence in an effort to stop this administration's mass deportation efforts,' said press secretary Karoline Leavitt. 'You will not succeed. Any lawlessness will only strengthen this president's resolve to defend the majority of Americans who want to live their lives peacefully, free from the fear of violent criminal illegal aliens.' The New York Police Department said at least 80 people were arrested at anti-ICE protests in lower Manhattan on Tuesday night. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) deployed the National Guard to deal with protests in his state. 'Peaceful protest is legal,' Abbott posted on X. 'Harming a person or property is illegal & will lead to arrest. @TexasGuard will use every tool & strategy to help law enforcement maintain order.' ICE took more than 70 people into custody during an immigration enforcement operation at a meat packaging facility in Omaha. Leavitt said more than 330 people in the country illegally have been arrested in Los Angeles over the past few days, and that more than 100 had prior criminal convictions. 'This administration is going to continue the mass deportation effort that the president promised the American public,' she said. President Trump's border czar Tom Homan said the protests are making immigration raids and deportations 'difficult' and 'dangerous' for the officers seeking to carry them out. 'They're not going to stop us,' Homan told 'NBC Nightly News' anchor Tom Llamas. 'They're not going to slow us down.' Organizers with 'No Kings' are planning about 1,500 demonstrations across the country to protest the military parade scheduled for Saturday in D.C. to mark the Army's 250th birthday. It's also Trump's 79th birthday. Protests and boycotts could also be in effect tonight at the Kennedy Center, where Trump and first lady Melania Trump will attend a production of 'Les Misérables.' LOS ANGELES ON EDGE Hundreds of U.S. Marines are expected to be deployed soon alongside the thousands of National Guard troops in Los Angeles, which has been racked by vandalism, looting and some violent altercations with the police. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) instituted an 8 p.m. curfew on Tuesday night, resulting in dozens of arrests for those who stayed out. Two men have been arrested for allegedly possessing Molotov cocktails. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Los Angeles is 'at a good point.' 'We're hoping it's going to get under control, we hope the curfew will work and we're going to continue to do everything we can to keep California safe if the government of California is not going to help them,' Bondi said. Newsom fumed at what he described as federal interference that furthered the chaos. 'This brazen abuse of power by a sitting president inflamed a combustible situation,' he said. A judge rejected Newsom's request to limit troop deployment, pending a Thursday hearing. The Department of Justice called Newsom's lawsuit a 'crass political stunt.' On Thursday, three Democratic governors from blue 'Sanctuary States' will testify before Congress: Govs. Tim Walz (Minn.), Kathy Hochul (New York) and JB Pritzker. 'Sanctuary cities and states will no longer be allowed to shield illegal criminal from deportation,' Leavitt said. 💡Perspectives: • American Conservative: Trump, Newsom play to their bases. Who will win? • Washington Post: Dems ignored the border. The consequences are here. • The Liberal Patriot: Both parties lose the plot on immigration. • The New York Times: The military may find itself in an impossible situation. • City Journal: Trump's unapologetic defense of the rule of law. Read more: • Trump team to send thousands of migrants to Guantanamo. • McIver indicted on federal charges for immigration center encounter. • Senate Dems spar with Hegseth over legality of Los Angeles deployments. • Dems rage against Trump's moves in LA, as some worry about optics. • GOP backs Trump on LA, but there's skepticism over deploying Marines. CATCH UP QUICK NEWS THIS AFTERNOON Trump, Musk talk reconciliation President Trump and Elon Musk are talking about reconciliation, days after their relationship imploded in a mess of threats and allegations. Early Wednesday morning, Musk expressed regret over the feud, which he escalated by alleging Trump had ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. 'I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week,' Musk wrote just after 3 a.m. EDT. 'They went too far.' Trump, who threatened to end government contracts for Musk's companies, was asked if he could reconcile with Musk. 'I guess I could,' Trump said in a podcast interview. 'But you know, we have to straighten out the country. Yeah, and my sole function now is getting this country back to a level higher than it's ever been.' Trump said he was mostly upset at Musk for trying to sink his 'big, beautiful bill.' Musk has been raging at the levels of spending and debt in the Trump agenda bill ever since his time at the White House leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) came to an end. 'I have no hard feelings,' Trump told the New York Post's Miranda Devine. 'I was really surprised that that happened,' Trump continued. 'He went after a bill… And when he did that, I was not a happy camper.' The New York Times reports that Trump and Musk spoke on the phone ahead of Musk's expression of regret. The latest on the 'big, beautiful bill'… Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) says he'll keep senators in Washington during the July 4 recess to complete work on Trump's agenda bill by the self-imposed deadline. House Republicans are teeing up changes to the bill, with intent of voting later this week. The Hill's Mychael Schnell and Emily Brooks explain: 'The tweaks come after the Senate parliamentarian reviewed the sprawling package and identified provisions that do not comply with the upper chamber's procedural requirements for using the budget reconciliation process, which allows Republicans to circumvent a Democratic filibuster and approve the legislation by simple majority.' MEANWHILE… A pair of House panels voted to advance legislation laying out oversight of the crypto market, amid opposition from Democrats. And House Republicans advanced legislation that calls for more than $450 billion to fund the Department of Veterans Affairs, military construction and other programs for fiscal 2026. It's the first of the 12 annual funding bills House GOP appropriators are hoping to move out of committee before Congress leaves for its August recess. 💡Perspectives: • The Spectator: The tech-MAGA alliance is far from over. • Very Serious: A terrible field of New York mayoral candidates. • The Hill: Trump, Congress can end abuse of taxpayers by PBS and NPR. • The Guardian: Trump wages war against U.S. citizens. • MSNBC: Americans prep for nationwide 'No Kings' rallies. Read more: • House GOP schedule interviews with former Biden aides. • Foreign investors recoil from 'discriminatory' tax in Trump's big bill. • 5 takeaways from the New Jersey primaries. • Sergio Gor cements himself as 'vital' part of Trump's White House. • Most voters in favor of Trump's 'most favored nation' drug price policy. IN OTHER NEWS US, China agree to new trade framework U.S. and Chinese officials announced an agreement in principle on a new trade framework after three days of meetings in London. The deal effectively restores a previous agreement, which the U.S. had accused China of breaking. Both countries will lower tariffs and roll back export controls on goods that are critical to technology. The deal still must be signed off on by President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump said over Truth Social the U.S. would impose 55 percent tariffs on Chinese goods, while China would impose a 10 percent tariff on U.S. products. In addition, China will supply magnets and 'any necessary rare earths,' while the U.S. will draw back restrictions on Chinese students attending U.S. universities, Trump said. Trump enjoyed a raft of good news on trade and the economy on Wednesday. An appeals court ruled that the bulk of Trump's tariffs can remain in place for now, extending a pause after a different court ruled the tariffs were illegal. 'A great and important win for the U.S.,' Trump wrote on Truth Social. And the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) data showed inflation coming in lower than expected, contrary to economic forecasts that predicted tariffs would provoke a spike in inflation. Trump has openly pressured Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to lower interest rates, but Powell has refused, citing uncertainty from the trade wars. Vice President Vance ripped the Fed on Wednesday, saying Trump has been proven right. 'The president has been saying this for a while, but it's even more clear: the refusal by the Fed to cut rates is monetary malpractice,' Vance posted on X. 💡Perspectives: • The Hill: Military spending is out of control. • The New Republic: The audacity of Trump's self-dealing. • USA Today: Progressives are destroying Democratic norms. • Wall Street Journal: Newsom positions himself as leader of the opposition. • The Economist: Is there a woke right? Read more: • GM investing $4 billion in production shift to US. Someone forward this newsletter to you? Sign up to get your own copy: See you next time!

Gavin Newsom mocked for tech issues during anti-Trump address to Californians: ‘Absolute fail'
Gavin Newsom mocked for tech issues during anti-Trump address to Californians: ‘Absolute fail'

Fox News

time18 minutes ago

  • Fox News

Gavin Newsom mocked for tech issues during anti-Trump address to Californians: ‘Absolute fail'

California Governor Gavin Newsom is being mocked online for an "embarrassing" televised address Tuesday night that experienced several technology meltdowns, resulting in the governor not being audible for parts of his speech. In a prerecorded message, Newsom, a Democrat rumored to have presidential aspirations, harshly condemned President Donald Trump's "brazen abuse of power" by using the military to respond to the ongoing anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles. He also said that those who engage in violence will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. "This isn't just about protests here in Los Angeles," Newsom said in the video. "This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes." His address, however, was inhibited by several technical issues, which resulted in his audio being cut off and distorted several times. Noting the meltdown on X, David Freeman, a conservative political commentator, mocked "Gavin Newsom's staff can't even set up a stream properly as his 'Major Announcement' has NO AUDIO." "If they can't do this correct, what makes anyone believe they can run California at all? EMBARRASSING!" said Freeman. "UTTER CALAMITY," commented Link Lauren, a political commentator and former senior advisor to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kevin Dalton, a popular conservative influencer, commented, "Gavin Newsom's 'Major Address to Californians' was a prerecorded video that was initially streamed without audio. After several minutes, a new color corrected version of the same video with actual audio was started. What an absolute fail." Another popular conservative social media account, The Washington Observer, commented: "Sean Hannity is desperately trying to play Gavin Newsom's speech — but he can't, because Newsom's audio is melting down for the third time tonight." Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., who observed the audio issues in real time on the Sean Hannity Show, also chimed in, saying, "So, I went on Sean Hannity to react to Gavin Newsom's speech. Turns out, it was a total mess. Disorganized. Bad audio." Mullin quipped, "But, what else should we expect from this poor excuse for a leader?" White House assistant to the president and director of communications Steven Cheung also piled onto the criticism, accusing Newsom of spending time creating the video rather than serving as governor. Likewise, Cheung took a swipe at the video's audio, claiming the production quality was akin to Newsom's leadership. "Gavin NewScum spent all this time--instead of doing his actual job-- preparing for a webinar just for the audio to not work," Cheung said in a post on X late Tuesday evening. "The production quality is just like his leadership quality-- sh***y." Deputy assistant to the president and principal deputy communications director Alex Pfieffer responded to Newsom's speech by saying that rather than Trump, "California is trying to subvert democracy." "American voters elected President Donald Trump to carry out his agenda, which includes enforcing the immigration laws passed by their elected representatives," said Pfeiffer. In response, Newsom's press office referred Fox News Digital to a Tuesday night X post which acknowledged the issues by saying, "Sorry for the momentary silence earlier — our stream briefly went under Trump-era transparency rules."

Hollywood enters AI scraping wars with new lawsuit from Disney and NBCUniversal
Hollywood enters AI scraping wars with new lawsuit from Disney and NBCUniversal

Yahoo

time19 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Hollywood enters AI scraping wars with new lawsuit from Disney and NBCUniversal

Disney (DIS) and NBCUniversal sued an artificial intelligence developer for allegedly infringing on their protected works, the first Hollywood corporate titans to join a mushrooming legal war pitting copyright holders against AI upstarts training their models with data scraped from the internet. In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday in a Los Angeles Federal District Court, Disney and NBCUniversal said that AI image-creating platform Midjourney pirated images without authorization. Midjourney obtained copies of Disney's Star Wars, Minions, and other characters through unauthorized libraries containing works from two Hollywood studios, according to the complaint. Its software allows people to create images from the companies' popular fictional characters, the suit said. The companies included AI-generated images of characters ranging from Darth Vader and Buzz Lightyear to the Minions and Spider-Man. 'Piracy is piracy, and whether an infringing image or video is made with AI or another technology does not make it any less infringing,' Disney said in its complaint. Midjourney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company is defending itself in another federal case in California brought by artists who allege Midjourney illegally trained its AI image generation models on their copyrighted works. The latest confrontation expands the number of high-profile cases from copyright holders seeking to guard their works from the reach of technology firms. A question at the heart of all these lawsuits: Can artificial intelligence companies use copyrighted material to train generative AI models without asking the owner of that data for permission? Another such clash came earlier this week when social media site Reddit (RDDT) sued AI startup Anthropic ( a company backed by tech giants Amazon (AMZN) and Google (GOOG, GOOGL) that created the AI language model Claude. Reddit is claiming in the new lawsuit that Anthropic intentionally scraped Reddit users' personal data without their consent and then put their data to work training Claude. Reddit said in its complaint that Anthropic "bills itself as the white knight of the AI industry" and argues that "it is anything but." Anthropic said last year that it had blocked its bots from Reddit's website, according to the complaint. But Reddit said Anthropic 'continued to hit Reddit's servers over one hundred thousand times.' An Anthropic spokesperson said, "We disagree with Reddit's claims and will defend ourselves vigorously." Anthropic is also defending itself against a separate suit from music publishers, including Universal Music Group (0VD.F), ABKCO, and Concord, alleging that Anthropic infringed on copyrights for Beyoncé, the Rolling Stones, and other artists as it trained Claude on lyrics to more than 500 songs. Courts haven't settled on a definitive answer to the question of whether artificial intelligence companies can use copyrighted material to train generative AI models without permission. However, last February, the US District Court for Delaware handed copyright holder Thomson Reuters a win in a case that could impact what data training models can legally collect. The court granted Thomson Reuters' request for summary judgment, saying that its competitor, Ross, infringed on its copyrights by using lawsuit summaries to train its AI model. The court rejected Ross's argument that it could use the summaries under the concept of fair use, which allows copyrights to be used for news reporting, teaching, research, criticism, and commentary. One big name featuring prominently in some of these clashes is OpenAI ( the creator of chatbot ChatGPT that is run by Sam Altman and backed by Microsoft (MSFT). Comedian Sarah Silverman has accused the companies in a lawsuit of copying material from her book and 7 million pirated works in order to train its AI systems. Parenting website Mumsnet has also accused OpenAI of scraping its six-billion-word database without consent. But perhaps the most prominent case targeting OpenAI is from the New York Times (NYT), which in 2023 filed a lawsuit accusing OpenAI and Microsoft of illegally using millions of the news outlet's published stories to train OpenAI's language models. The newspaper has said that ChatGPT at times generates query answers that closely mirror its original publications. Last week, OpenAI called the lawsuit "baseless" and appealed a judge's recent order in that case requiring the AI developer to preserve 'output data' generated by ChatGPT. OpenAI and Microsoft are using a defense similar to those raised in other AI training copyright disputes: that the Times' publicly available content falls under the fair use doctrine and, therefore, can be used to train its models. Getty Images is trying to chip away at that same argument in lawsuits in the US and United Kingdom filed in 2023 against AI image generation startup Stability. The UK case went to trial on Monday. Stability argues that fair use (or "fair dealing" as it's known in the UK) justified training its technology, Stable Diffusion, on copyrighted Getty material. That same defense has hallmarks of justification that Google has been asserting for the past two decades to fight lawsuits claiming it violated copyright laws when pulling information into results for users' search queries. In 2005, the Authors Guild sued Google over millions of books that the tech giant scanned and made available in 'snippets' to online searchers. Google didn't pay for the copyrighted information but did provide word-for-word pieces of the copyrighted works in search results. The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reasoned in a decision that Google's scanning project tested the limits of fair use but was 'transformative' and therefore protected under fair use law. In 2016, Getty Images sued Google over similar claims, alleging that Google violated its copyrights and antitrust law by displaying Getty's high-resolution images in Google search results. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store