Disney, an American entertainment and media conglomerate has decided to expunge gender-specific pronouns from its cartoon productions.

Karen Burke, the president of Disney’s general entertainment, said the decision is to ensure wider inclusivity for all sexual orientations, specifically mentioning that half of the characters in their upcoming projects will represent the LGBTQIA+ community or racial minorities, by the end of the year.

Ms Burke, the mother of two queer kids – one transgender child and one pansexual child- said this during a company-wide Zoom call.

Also, during the staff meeting on Florida’s recent enactment of the Parental Rights in Education bill, executive producer for Disney Television Latoya Raveneau talked about advancing her “not-at-all-secret gay agenda” to insert queerness into children’s animation/cartoon productions. 

The company’s animation offerings has become popular among children over the years.

In the video obtained by Journalist Christopher Rufo, Ms Raveneau talked about the studio’s treatment of her progressive ideas, despite her negative expectations of the company. She praised Disney for gladly accepting and including her pitches for LGBTQ-friendly Easter eggs, instead of rejecting them. 

“In my little pocket of Proud Family Disney TVA, the show runners were super welcoming … to my not-at-all-secret gay agenda,” she said.

“Maybe it was that way in the past, but I guess something must have happened …. and then like all that momentum that I felt, that sense of ‘I don’t have to be afraid to have these two characters kiss in the background.’ I was just, wherever I could, adding queerness… No one would stop me, and no one was trying to stop me.”

Meanwhile, Disney’s diversity and inclusion chief Vivain said that they no longer address theme park visitors as ‘ladies and gentleman, boys and girls’ but instead as ‘dreamers’ and ‘friends’.