Disney shareholders rejected a proposal that would see the company cut ties with the Human Rights Commission, a LGBTQ rights organization.

The “Request to Cease CEI Participation” proposal, if enacted, would see Disney end participation in the HRC’s Corporate Equality Index, which rates companies on their friendliness towards the LGBTQ community. Ratings are determined via surveys submitted to the HRC. Companies are rated on nondiscrimination policies, benefits for LGBTQ workers, corporate culture and social responsibility. The Walt Disney Co. currently holds a perfect 100 score, and has since 2007.

The proposal was submitted by the National Center for Public Policy Research, through its Free Enterprise Project initiative, according to Variety.

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“The threat of a bad score is wielded against corporations to force them to do the political bidding of HRC and others (like GLSEN, the Trevor Project and GLAAD, which Disney also has paid partnerships with) that seek to sow gender confusion in children, encourage irreversible surgical procedures on confused teens, effectively eliminate girls’ and women’s sports and bathrooms, and roll back longstanding religious liberties,” the proposal read in part, according to Deadline.

Only 7% of shareholders voted to approve the proposal, Deadline reported. The HRC celebrated the news.

“This vote gives us a clear statement of values from Disney’s shareholders. They know what we know – that despite all the noise, commitments to inclusion pay figurative dividends and help their literal bottom line,” Eric Bloem, Vice President of Corporate Citizenship at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, said in a statement.

Proposals like this are part of a anti-DEI campaign against a number of large corporations. Right-wing activist Robby Starbuck has been a particularly loud campaigner in getting companies to cut ties with the HRC, according to LGBTQ Nation.

“This group, the HRC, fuels the wokeness in Corporate America via their CEI scoring system where companies bend over backwards to get a 100% score. Many even hire a special health care concierge for LGBTQ employees and fund transitions for children of employees in order to get their 100% CEI score,” Starbuck wrote on X (formerly Twitter) last year.

“To get their 100% score, they essentially have to worship at the altar of left wing policy. Over the coming months, with the help of some great whistleblowers, we will expose every element of these disgusting practices. Now is the time to name and shame every single company who associates with this open hatred of conservative consumers.”

Though Disney did not make a particular comment beyond saying that the proposal was “not approved,” Costco officials had harsh words when they were faced with a similar proposal brought before shareholders by the same group.

“The proponent professes concern about legal and financial risks to the Company and its shareholders associated with the diversity initiatives. The supporting statement demonstrates that it is the proponent and others that are responsible for inflicting burdens on companies with their challenges to longstanding diversity programs. The proponent’s broader agenda is not reducing risk for the Company but abolition of diversity initiatives,” Costco’s board of directors wrote in a statement urging shareholders to vote against the proposal.

Image by Eric Philbin via Wikimedia Commons, used under Creative Commons license.

Democratic vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz mocked the recent increase in anti-LGBTQ book bans during a speech for the Human Rights Campaign.

Delivering the keynote Saturday evening at the HRC’s National Dinner, Walz made fun of recent attempts to ban children’s books like And Tango Makes Three, according to LGBTQ Nation. That beloved kid’s book is based on the true story of two gay penguins in a zoo who raised a chick on their own.

“[In Minnesota], we banned banning books, especially banning LGBTQ books,” Walz said. “This is what these folks are focusing on, spending all their time. Like reading about two male penguins who love each other is somehow going to turn your children gay, and that’s what you should worry about.

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“But here’s what I’ll tell you, it’s a fact of life: Some people are gay. But you know what’s not a fact of life? That our children need to be be shot dead in schools. That’s not a fact of life. Folks are banning books, but they’re okay with weapons of war being in our schools.”

On Thursday, Ohio Senator JD Vance addressed the September 4 shooting at the Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. Walz’s opponent in the vice presidential race was criticized for characterizing school shootings as a “fact of life.”

“I don’t like that this is a fact of life,” Vance said, according to the Associated Press. “But if you are a psycho and you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are soft targets. And we have got to bolster security at our schools. We’ve got to bolster security so if a psycho wants to walk through the front door and kill a bunch of children they’re not able.”

Attempts to block children from accessing LGBTQ-themed children’s books have ramped up in the last few years. In July, a law went into effect in Idaho that bans “obscene materials” from being seen by people under 18. While that may sound on its face to be unobjectionable, the law defines the term broadly. One of the types of content flagged as “obscene” is portrayals of “homosexuality.” There is no additional clarification to determine if this means sex acts, or the mere existence of gay people. If a library violates this law, it is hit with a $250 mandatory fine. If a patron should sue, there is no cap to the amount of money a judge could award them in damages, according to LGBTQ Nation.

LGBTQ-themed books are also frequently challenged and banned. In 2022, over half of the top 13 most-challenged books had queer themes or characters, LGBTQ Nation reported.

Walz has not made a secret of his support for the LGBTQ community. When he was a teacher, he was the advisor to his school’s Gay-Straight Alliance, according to the New York Times.

When it comes to trans kids playing team sports, anti-LGBTQ activists and politicians have been trying to block them from joining teams with other players of the gender they identify with. But two recent rulings have brought good news — and hopefully a signal that things are changing.

An 11-year-old girl identified as “Janie Doe” sued the Hanover County, Virginia school district after the school board tried to block her from playing on the girls’ tennis team. On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge M. Hannah Lauck issued an injunction forcing the school district to let her try out for the team, according to the Hill.

The injunction isn’t a final ruling — Judge Lauck is yet to hear the full case. But the injunction is a sign that Lauck may rule that the Hanover County board went against Title IX, the law banning sex-based discrimination in schools, as well as the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, according to the ACLU, who filed the lawsuit on Doe’s behalf.

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“Janie has established that the Board excluded her, on the basis of sex, from participating in an education program when it denied her application to try out for (and if selected, to participate on) her school’s girls’ tennis team,” wrote the U.S. District Court Judge M. Hannah Lauck. She added the school board’s ban of trans kids on gendered teams “contravene[s] the strong public interest in educational institutions being free of discrimination of all kinds, including on the basis of gender identity.”

In a separate case, two transgender teens filed suit against New Hampshire over H.B. 1205, a law banning trans women and girls from joining women’s teams at public schools and colleges. The two teens, Parker Tirrell, 15, and Iris Turmelle, 14, make similar arguments as in the Doe case, that the law violates Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause.

The law was due to go into effect on Sunday, but on Monday, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Landya McCafferty issued an emergency injunction against the law while the case is decided.

Tirrell attended court Monday in her soccer uniform, according to LGBTQ Nation, and headed directly to her team’s soccer practice.

“We’re there for each other, win or lose,” Tirrell said in a press release. “Not being allowed to play on my team with the other girls would disconnect me from so many of my friends and make school so much harder. I just want to be myself and to learn, play, and support my teammates like I did last year.”

Like the Doe case, the ruling is just a pause on H.B. 1205 while the case is decided, but the willingness of the judge to issue the injunction could be seen as a good sign for the future of the case.