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The House of Mouse has been having a breakout year in 2021 after successfully launching multiple new platforms and a new streaming service back in 2020. Disney has been hit with a lawsuit citing discrimination based on sexual orientation by a longtime executive on the first day of Pride month.
“Plaintiff has direct and repeated complaints to HR about the discrimination he has endured while employed by Defendants and, concomitantly, the related failures to promote him and to pay him at the same level as other department heads,” said the complaint filed by attorneys for Joel Hopkins in Los Angeles Superior Court.
“After his sexual orientation became known to his superiors and after being discriminated against and put on a dead-end career track and repeatedly denied promotions with no remedy or relief from HR, Plaintiff is informed and believes that yet again, in or around April 2021, several promotions occurred, but Plaintiff once again was not promoted,” continues the 10-page filing for sexual orientation discrimination and failure to prevent discrimination in violation of California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (read the suit here). “Plaintiff is informed and believes that these promotions occurred despite representations that Disney was hurting financially and not promoting.”
The named defendants are the Walt Disney Company, ABC Signature Studios, Inc., and Riverside Television Services LLC.
Hopkins currently serves as VP of Production Finance at the 2020-formed ABC Signature for Disney. He has been with Disney since 1994 as the Director of Production Finance for Buena Vista TV. In 2000, he was promoted to VP of Production Finance for Touchstone TV. This would be around the time his superiors learned of his sexual orientation as a gay man. According to the complaint, “Plaintiff’s sexual orientation as a gay man became known to several individuals, including Plaintiff’s direct supervisor, Jim Hedges, the CFO of ABC.”
Hopkins is seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages and various lawsuit costs – damages that could really start racking up if a judge takes into consideration what Hopkins could have earned over the decades had he moved up the Disney corporate food chain accordingly.
“Plaintiff is also informed and believes that his compensation is less than other individuals who are also department heads and that his title is lower than other individuals who are also department heads, especially for someone of Plaintiff’s experience and tenure,” the paperwork submitted to the LASC by lawyers Omid Nosrati and Michael Zarocostas declares.
These “woke” corporations have created the conundrum themselves where they are the ones losing when promotions are overlooked based on performance issues or salary requirements. Considering the case when would straight men be able to sue when they are not promoted after performance issues which seems to be the case here.
