Dawn Chmielewski and Lisa Richwine

LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) – Employees at Walt Disney Co protested against Florida’s legislation restricting sexual orientation and gender identity in schools by staging walkouts on Tuesday.

Around 60 Disney workers gathered outside Los Angeles’ Walt Disney World Park to protest the lack of equality. They held signs asking Disney for help and sang “Disney say Gay.” We will not go away.”

Disney is a great company to work for. And a lot of people are upset that the company they love is harming the subset of employees and their community in Florida,” said Taylor White, a technical director at Disney television.

Disney was subject to internal criticism regarding its public stance on the bill, which critics refer to as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

Some employees marched around the lot of Disney Studios on Tuesday. Others spoke via Twitter (NYSE :). Disney employs approximately 16,000 workers in Burbank, Glendale, and other areas, but many employees are working at home due to the pandemic.

These protests were the culmination of a week’s worth of short walk-outs in scheduled breaks. It was part of an initiative called “Disney Do Better Walkout.”

They asked Disney to stop making campaign donations to Florida politicians and develop a plan for protecting employees against such legislation. The organizers also asked Disney to stop construction in Florida, the home of Walt Disney World’s main theme park. This is until the state repeals this measure. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said he will sign it. It will go into effect on July 1 if that happens.

On Monday, Disney hosted a virtual townhall for employees to discuss employee concerns. Chairman and CEO Bob Chapek acknowledged that Disney made a mistake in not being openly supportive of legislation. He pledged to take the opportunity as an opportunity for the world to change.

“We know how important this issue is for our LGBTQ+ employees, their families and allies, we respect our colleagues’ right to express their views,” a Disney spokesperson said. “And we pledge our ongoing support of the LGBTQ+ community in the fight for equal rights.”

One unit of Disney+ offered support to LGBTQIA+ colleagues ahead of Tuesday’s protests. It wrote, “We strongly denounce any legislation that infringes upon the basic human rights people in the LGBTQIA+ communities.”