Disney Will End Funding To Boy Scouts Over Anti-Gay Policy

The powerhouse company, Walt Disney, made a very bold decision earlier in the month to cut funding to the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) effective as of 2015. The reason for this decision was based on their policy placed on gay adult leaders being banned from the organization. The Boy Scout organization had made a decision last year to remove the ban on gay youth but still prohibited homosexual adult leaders. Although Walt Disney did not provide direct funding, they donated money to the Boy Scout troops. This will now affect the way in which the kids at BSA will be served due to the insubstantial amount of funding that will be available. Despite the clear disappointment that the kids and Boy Scout community feel, David Jefferson, the chief spokesman of Walt Disney did not make any comments nor answer any calls about the matter. Walt Disney announced their decision to cut funding via a memo that alerted the troops of their decision.

In terms of risk communication, Walt Disney is thinking in a macro, meso and micro level. They want everyone to follow their ideologies about non-discriminatory practices in order for all youth as well as adults to feel accepted. They are also thinking on the meso level because they want to reduce the risk for their own company by not being associated with a discriminatory organization. Lastly, Walt Disney is also thinking on the micro level because they are concerned about each homosexual youth or adult that will be influenced by the BSA’s actions. Walt Disney has really dealt with this crisis effectively as they have separated themselves from the risk by cutting all ties with the discriminatory organization. They did it subtly but effectively. The memo was to the point and rapidly spread through the World Wide Web in order for the general public to know exactly what their stance was on this situation. By having the memo spread online, it also allowed a larger audience to see exactly how the BSA feels about homosexual adults. This concurrently is very bad publicity for the BSA organization.

Therefore, Boy Scouts of America is placing themself in a very high risk because this news about their policies is spreading quickly, and soon it will effect their reputation very negatively. That will then influence their stakeholders and the parents of the kids involved and will eventually lead them to shutting down the program altogether or will force them to make different homosexual friendly policies.

Reference: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/02/disney-boy-scouts_n_4886851.html?ir=Canada&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067,