Walt Disney World has reportedly opted to sever local support of the Boy Scouts of America over the organization's controversial stance on openly gay participants.
The president of BSA's Central Florida Council apparently confirmed the news in an email to scouts' families, saying that Disney World's "Ears to You" grant program for employees would not longer make BSA contributions.
“According to [Walt Disney World], their views do not currently align with the BSA and they are choosing to discontinue this level of support," Robert Utsey wrote in the email, according to ThinkProgress.
Eagle Scout and Scouts for Equality co-founder Zach Wahls, best known as the young Iowa man whose impassioned gay marriage speech went viral in 2011, released an email statement to The Huffington Post praising Disney's decision.
“We’re never happy to see Scouting suffer as a result of the BSA’s anti-gay policy, but Disney made the right decision to withhold support until Scouting is fully inclusive,” Wahls said in the statement, which can be read in full here.
Although the Boy Scouts began accepting openly gay youth participants on Jan. 1, adult members are still prohibited from the organization. Lockheed Martin, Merck and UPS are just three of the companies to cite BSA's stance on gay members in their decision to sever corporate funding.
Meanwhile, Disney has come under fire in recent years for its perceived stance on the LGBT community. Earlier this month, "A Well-Behaved Mormon Woman" blogger Kathryn Skaggs blasted the animated Disney blockbuster "Frozen" for what she described as the movie's "gay agenda to normalize homosexuality."
Last year, Disney World's unofficial "Gay Days" tradition was slammed by One Million Moms, the conservative and notoriously anti-gay group best known for threatening to boycott JC Penney after the retail chain hired Ellen DeGeneres as its spokesperson.
The Florida Family Association has also reportedly condemned "Gay Days," vowing to fly two planes carrying "warning" banners over the Orlando-based resort for "promoting homosexuality to a captured audience" visiting the four theme parks.
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