The events are being held in the company’s home state of Arkansas.
QUICK FACTS:
- The Walmart Foundation, funded by the family of founder Sam Walton, has sponsored local drag shows and story hours for kids.
- The Equity Crew was the recipient of the Waltons’ 2021 LGBTQ+ Advancement Fund, which hosted a children’s event during NWA Equality’s pride parade in June.
- The same group also hosted a back-to-school night for “LGBTQ+ youth” at the Fayetteville Public Library which took place in the summer of this year.
- The Waltons have funneled millions toward LGBTQ-related causes in Arkansas, according to recent research by The Heritage Foundation.
ARKANSAS PUSHBACK AGAINST TRANSGENDER IDEOLOGY:
- Arkansas has made significant steps to ban transgender reassignment surgery for minors, Republican Attorney General and Lieutenant Governor-elect Leslie Rutledge defending the state’s law banning transgender surgery on minors.
- The ‘Save Adolescents From Experimentation’ (SAFE) Act was passed by the state legislature but was later held up in court due to a suit by the American Civil Liberties Union.
- “We’re only wanting to protect the children in the state of Arkansas, again, from making a life-altering, permanent decision such as changing their gender. This is a law that we passed in order to protect children, this is to protect minors,” Rutledge said
BACKGROUND:
- Disney+ has again moved toward supporting the LGBTQ lifestyle and is producing a “queer” fantasy series called “Willow” which follows the story of a teen sorcerer.
- The show is produced by Jonathan Kasdan, who told journalists there was “no pushback” when asked if there was any opposition to the romance between two female characters.
- The show is rated TV-14 and begins airing on Disney+ on November 30.
- “What’s interesting is — I hope and I believe we’re at a moment where you’re going to see a paradigm shift in that,” Kasdan said. “And hopefully, the way that it’s gonna happen is that these kinds of [queer] stories, particularly like this one, that were just organic to the narrative we were telling, find their way in, and it becomes less of a surprising and unusual thing to see,” the producer went on.
