Disney CEO’s Statement On LGBTQ+ Rights Praised By MCU Stars Mark Ruffalo & Vincent D’Onofrio

Tom Tapp
·3 min read

As controversy continued to swirl around Disney’s stance on Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, the Hulk himself today tweeted praise for Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s statement in support of the LGBTQ+ community.

“I want to be crystal clear: I and the entire leadership team unequivocally stand in support of our LGBTQ+ employees, their families, and their communities,” Chapek said in a memo to employees earlier this week. Mark Ruffalo, who as the Hulk was part of the MCU — and Disney’s extended family — this morning shared Chapek’s quote and a one word response: “Bravo!”

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Ruffalo is no stranger to political stances, having been an outspoken critic of the Keystone Pipeline, Donald Trump and Fox News in recent years. His praise of Chapek, however, was not received well by commenters on the tweet, one of whom wrote, “I’m sorry your boss made you post this.”

To be fair, Ruffalo is a relentless supporter of progressive causes, including those impacting the LGBTQ+ community. Just yesterday, the actor tweeted in protest of the Florida bill, “Gay! Gay! Gay! #SayGayAnyway.”

Actor Vincent D’Onofrio, who played Kingpin most recently in Marvel’s Hawkeye series, today tweeted a story featuring the same Chapek quote and a report that the CEO met with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis about the bill. D’Onofrio added, “This is good.”

Commenters on D’Onofrio’s tweet were slightly more supportive of the actor, but no less critical of Chapek.

“It’s good yes but man he missed a great opportunity to be ahead on this. That neutral position now makes this all look reactive and face-saving,” wrote one.

Other actors with Disney ties also spoke out about the bill, including big names from Disney’s Star Wars franchise.

The Mandalorian and star Pedro Pascal this morning tweeted a map of Florida filled with the word “gay” written over and over.

None other than Luke Skywalker himself tweeted the word “Gay” 69 times in response to the legislation.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, who has had a string of projects with Disney in the past few years — including his Hamilton film which was released on Disney+ last year, his work on the studio’s Encanto which earned him an Original Song Oscar nomination this year and songs for the upcoming live-action remake of The Little Mermaid — wrote a series of posts on Twitter today about Florida’s “cruel and backwards law” as well as queer identity, which he called “beautiful & natural.”

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