70% of Americans now less likely to do business with Disney: poll

An overwhelming majority of Americans say they are less likely to do business with Disney after learning that the company is “creating content to expose young children to sexual ideas.”

The Trafalgar Group released a nationwide issues survey that it conducted in conjunction with the conservative advocacy group Convention of States Action. The survey questioned 1,079 likely general election voters between April 5–8, and asked them for their opinions about the Walt Disney Company’s publicized embrace of LGBT activism following a Florida law that prohibits school officials from teaching curriculum on sexual orientation on gender identity to children in kindergarten through the third grade, including teaching them that they can identify as any gender they choose.

After informing respondents that “News reports reveal Disney is focusing on creating content to expose young children to sexual ideas,” the survey asked, “Does this make you more or less likely to do business with Disney?” A majority of those surveyed (57.2%) indicated that Disney’s embrace of LGBT activism made them “much less likely” to do business with the company, while an additional 11% told pollsters they were “less likely” to do so.

Only 6.1% said they were “much more likely” to do business with Disney, while 3.3% reported that they were “somewhat more likely” to do so. The remainder of respondents (22.5%) maintained that Disney’s efforts to introduce LGBT ideology to young children would make “no difference” in their desire to do business with the company.

Broken down by party ideology, Republicans were more likely than Democrats to express a desire to cut ties with Disney over its LGBT activism. More than three-quarters (76%) of Republicans surveyed reported that they were “much less likely” to do business with the company and an additional 9.3% simply described themselves as “less likely.”

Less than 1% (0.9%) of Republicans identified themselves as “somewhat more likely” to conduct business with Disney, while 3.5% predicted that they were “much more likely” to conduct a business relationship with Disney going forward, and 10.3% insisted that the company’s LGBT advocacy made “no difference” in their support for the corporation.

Similarly, 63.4% of those who selected “no party/other” when asked about their partisan affiliation contended that they were “much less likely” to do business with Disney, while 9.1% maintained that they were “less likely” to do so. The share of independent voters who are much more likely to do business with Disney because of its LGBT activism was measured at 6.9%, with the percentage of independent voters “somewhat more likely” to do business with Disney measured at 2.2%.

Slightly more than one-sixth of unaffiliated voters (18.3%) stated that Disney’s creation of “content to expose young children to sexual ideas” would make “no difference” in whether or not they would conduct business with the company going forward.

While Democrats were much less likely than Republicans and Independents to express a desire to boycott Disney over its LGBT activism, a plurality of Democrats surveyed (48.2%) classified themselves as “less likely” to do business with the family entertainment company, with 34.2% “much less likely” to do so and 14% “less likely” to conduct business with Disney. Only 8% asserted that Disney’s LGBT activism made them “much more likely” to conduct business with the company, while 6.4% were “somewhat more likely” to do so.

More than one-third of Democrats (37.4%) said Disney’s LGBT activism made “no difference” in whether or not they would do business with the company. The survey also inquired about respondents’ likelihood to support “family-friendly alternatives to Disney.”

A plurality of likely voters (45.1%) said they were “very likely” to support alternatives to Disney, while 24% maintained that they were “somewhat likely” to do so. An additional 11.5% suggested that they were “somewhat unlikely” to embrace alternative family entertainment companies, while 19.3% classified themselves as “very unlikely” to do so.

An outright majority (53.9%) of Republicans were “very likely” to embrace family-friendly alternatives to Disney and an additional 23.7% saw themselves as “somewhat likely” to support alternatives to Disney. Only 7.3% of Republicans were “somewhat unlikely” to support alternatives to Disney, while 15.1% identified themselves as “very unlikely” to take their business elsewhere.

A plurality of respondents who selected “no party/other” as their partisan affiliation (49.3%) predicted that they were “very likely” to do business with alternatives to Disney, followed by 22.8% who saw themselves as “somewhat likely” to embrace alternatives to Disney, 17.4% who saw such a scenario as “very unlikely” to, and 10.6% who viewed the possibility of championing alternatives to Disney as “somewhat unlikely.”

Approximately one-third of Democrats (33.2%) told pollsters they were “very likely” to support family-friendly alternatives to Disney, followed by 25.4% of Democrats who seemed “somewhat likely” to do business with family-friendly alternatives to Disney, 25% who were “very unlikely” to do so, and 16.4% who reported the abandonment of Disney in favor of family-friendly alternatives as “somewhat unlikely.”

The release of the Trafalgar poll comes as Disney continues to face backlash over its response to a recently passed parental rights bill in Florida that prevents school officials from teaching students in kindergarten through third grade about matters related to sexual orientation and gender identity. While Disney is based in California, it operates the popular Walt Disney World theme park in Orlando, Florida.

In what Christopher Rufo of City Journal and the Manhattan Institute characterized as an “all-hands meeting” about the legislation derided by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay Bill,” Disney officials lauded their efforts to incorporate LGBT ideology into programming geared toward young children. Specifically, one executive producer at Disney touted that she was “basically adding queerness” to children’s programming “wherever I could” because “no one would stop me” and “no one was trying to stop me.”

As the comments made during the video obtained by Rufo suggest, Disney had worked to incorporate LGBT characters into children’s programming even before the outcry over Florida’s parental rights bill. The entertainment company’s Pixar Animation Studios released the children’s animated film “Onward” in Marc
h 2020, which features a lesbian heroine. Three years earlier, a live-action remake of the classic “Beauty and the Beast” featured a “gay moment.”