Does Disney care more about celebrating transgender activists or the pain of its employees and their families (including children)?
The answer will be revealed at the shareholders’ meeting on April 3rd. A proposal submitted by my organization.
We are calling on the company, known for its association with gender ideology movements, to stop ignoring the critical medical needs of people seeking to reverse their gender transition.
As Disney shareholders, my group submitted a proposal to the company in October.
We want the entertainment giant to explain why its health insurance doesn’t include coverage for people trying to detransition.
The issue of equal treatment is especially important as more Americans seek gender reassignment only to end up regretting it, and Disney reinforced this trend by publicly aligning itself with the transgender cause.
Many people who attempt to change their gender have gender dysphoria, a psychological condition in which they feel uncomfortable with their biological sex.
Instead of receiving the proper counseling needed to address this problem, they are usually quickly steered by medical professionals to invasive and often irreversible drug and surgical treatments.
But instead of getting rid of their physical discomfort, many people find themselves facing horrific physical effects and even more serious mental health issues.
My organization has worked with Chloe Cole, a patient advocate at the nonprofit organization Do No Harm, who began her gender transition at age 12.
By age 16, after taking puberty blockers and undergoing a double mastectomy, she tried to get back together.
However, her body has been irreversibly changed and damaged, and even years later, her chest is still bandaged.
She is likely on another medication and will require ongoing treatment for the rest of her life.
Detransitioners tell a similar story, and while we cannot accurately estimate their numbers, we do know that their numbers are rapidly increasing.
However, Disney’s health insurance completely ignores transitioners.
Disney is happy to help its employees and their families (including children) get physically injured.
We have no interest in helping restore their remains, even as we encourage them to continue down that destructive path.
Disney is following the orders of a powerful outside interest group, the Human Rights Campaign.
The group’s Corporate Equality Index ranks companies based in part on their commitment to transgenderism, and to earn a 100% score, health insurance coverage must include employees, family members, Gender transition of dependents should be included.
For example, Disney’s coverage of Cigna includes reducing the size of testicles, creating penises and vaginas, and various other genital shaping and mutilation procedures, as well as puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.
The Human Rights Campaign denies the need for restorative care, reflecting the activist community’s belief that people in transition are abnormal.
Acknowledging their existence and growing numbers would draw attention to the fact that sex changes are often irreversible, and raise troubling questions about the morality of what they are promoting.
They are happy to help a young girl cut off her breasts, but less excited to help her regain what she lost forever.
Disney received a score of 100%, effectively admitting that it did not cover the cost of detransition treatment.
Most notably, when Disney asked the Securities and Exchange Commission for permission to exclude the company’s shareholder proposal from the annual meeting, Disney stated that the proposal was invalid because it was already subject to detransition. This means that there is a possibility that
Instead, Disney tried to exclude it for technical reasons.
The SEC forced the company to keep it that way.
Disney management urged shareholders to oppose our proposal.
But that’s what you’d expect from a company that touts a 100% score.
As Anheuser-Busch recently learned, management fears losing its coveted designation due to continued negative media coverage.
It’s not just Disney. The Human Rights Campaign gave his 595 companies a score of 100%.
My organization has submitted similar proposals to several companies, including Johnson & Johnson and PepsiCo, which have upcoming shareholder meetings.
At the December shareholder meeting, Microsoft management urged shareholders to vote against the company’s proposal, but it did not pass.
The company maintains a 100% score and continues to ignore the urgent and lifelong medical needs of a growing number of people.
No matter what happens at Disney, the fight to protect detransitioners will continue.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has already made it illegal to discriminate in wages or benefits based on gender identity or sexual orientation.
As our proposal makes clear, that language also includes detransitioners, even if companies like Disney and transgender activists don’t like it or deny that transgender people exist. Masu.
If Disney shareholders don’t give these suffering people an April 3 deadline, it’s only a matter of time before the new presidential administration and the courts will force them to do so.
Detransitioners are people too, and it’s time for Disney and all other companies to acknowledge their pain instead of blindly praising activists.
Paul Chesser is director of the National Legal and Policy Center’s Corporate Integrity Project.
