Disney steps out.

While Ellen DeGeneres and ABC are being lauded for their courage in letting Ellen out of the closet later this month, the Walt Disney Co.--parent of both ABC and Ellen--is arguably the player with the most at stake. Presenting prime time's first principal gay character would be risky business for any studio, but Disney has been built on a traditionally wholesome, all-American image that may well vanish in a cloud of magic dust when Ellen Morgan announces April 30 that she's a lesbian.

Insiders at the studio insist this is a risk worth taking. "Ultimately this move makes Disney even more reflective of America," says Disney executive Susan Saroff, "because we're acknowledging a basic truth about this country: that there are different kinds of people here. We're getting very good at showing that."

Disney also reflects America in less appealing ways. The company has been slow and inconsistent in coming to grips with the vibrant gay presence within its ranks. Like many an American family, it has privately embraced gay members while publicly ignoring their sexual orientation. Over the past decade Disney has earned a reputation for offering a uniquely gay-friendly work environment. But officially company spokesmen have cultivated a deafening silence on gay issues.

This policy has led to seemingly schizophrenic stances all too familiar to most American gays and lesbians. Disney has been quick to acknowledge the value of talents like Elton John, who wrote and sang music for 1994's The Lion King, and Howard Ashman, who penned lyrics for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and part of Aladdin before dying of AIDS complications in 1991. But the company has been less eager to encourage public mention of their identities as openly gay men.

The Ellen coming-out episode, many believe, signals the beginning of a more openly accepting era in film and television. Of course, it's only the latest in a long series of battles. "Old Walt would be spinning in his grave if he could see some of the stuff we're putting out today," says one high-placed executive at Disney's Touchstone Pictures who prefers not to be named. "Gay people didn't exist as far as Walt Disney was concerned. They just weren't wholesome.

But even in Walt's time Disney was a company where good business sense prevailed. And since gays have long been essential to the company's creations, Disney has sensibly provided an increasingly gay-friendly workplace. "Things have changed dramatically over time," says Kathy Bailey, an openly lesbian Disney employee for 14 years. "Many of the best people in this business are gay, and the company has gradually created a work environment where gay employees feel valued and respected."

Sometimes that respect is evident outside the company's gates. "At the AIDS walk in Los Angeles, Disney always manages to have the largest team carrying the biggest banners," reports Todd White, director of creative retail at Disney. I take my partner with me to Disney functions, and we're always treated with respect." White feels that Disney chairman Michael Eisner has "sent down a message that this company won't discriminate against anyone for any reason."

Despite all that, Robert Williams, cochair of Disney's Lesbian and Gay United Employees (LEAGUE) organization, admits that the turning point for gay and lesbian workers didn't come until 1995, when they were granted domestic-partner benefits. It wasn't that long ago that LEAGUE members were forbidden to be photographed with the Disney logo and had their proposals for insurance benefits for same-sex spouses routinely rejected.

"We had to pressure Disney to take that leap," says Richard Jennings, executive director of Hollywood Supports, an advocacy group that deals with gay-related issues in the entertainment-industry workplace. Jennings's organization helped LEAGUE members draft the benefits proposals. "The company wanted to introduce these benefits when it became a competitive issue--when other studios were offering them and not before," Jennings continues. "They came up with a lot of excuses, and then they stopped responding altogether."

Jennings says that when Disney acquired ABC in 1995, the company had to extend domestic-partner insurance because ABC already offered the perk to its employees: "They couldn't very well have one part of the company getting benefits that the other wasn't being offered. In any case, Disney was one of the last large entertainment companies to provide these benefits."

And when it comes to public speaking, some of the company's more conservative practices linger. Employees must still ask permission before talking with the press on gay and lesbian issues. "I'm allowed to speak as an individual employee of the company, not as a spokesperson for LEAGUE," Williams says. "We're not allowed to issue press releases or use the Disney logo in conjunction with our newsletter or other off-site projects. But it's no big deal."

Other employees feel differently about Disney's discordant rules. "My boss recommended that I not go on the record about gay issues," reports one feature animator. "I don't get it. We have the best policies around, so why not say so? I think the company would prefer we not say the words 'gay' or 'lesbian' in conjunction with the word 'Disney.' But my boss is gay, half of my department is gay, and we all love working here. It's a little confusing."

The company's apparent ambivalence has spilled over into the Ellen episode as well. When David Smith, communications director of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay lobbying group, tried to buy airtime for a gay-themed commercial on Ellen's comingout episode, he was turned down. ABC said the commercial, about protecting gays from job discrimination was "too controversial."

"ABC cited a policy that says they don't accept 'controversial issue advertising,'" reports Smith, who ended up buying airtime on 29 ABC affiliates that will run the commercial during Ellen's local breaks. Six affiliates--including those in New York City, Philadelphia, and Chicago-rejected the ad, but Smith still applauds the network. "Overall, ABC and Disney are to be commended for their courage in airing the coming-out episode," he says, "particularly given Disney's all-American reputation."

In fact, gay content has gradually crept into the company's product over the past decade. In 1995 the company withstood bitter protests from religious groups regarding Priest, a critically acclaimed movie about homosexuality in the Catholic Church that was released by Disney's Miramax film division. And subtle gay humor has found its way into several of Disney's animated features. The genie in Aladdin, whose voice was supplied by Robin Williams, emulates a swishy clothier in one scene. And Gaston, the primping, muscle-bound hunk of Beauty and the Beast, was reportedly an homage by gay animator Andreas Deja to his favorite West Hollywood gym clones.

Disney has presented positive gay images on the small screen as well. Disney-affiliated Storyline Entertainment made 1995's Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story, a coproduction between openly gay producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron and Barbra Streisand's Barwood Films. "We've always found Disney more than willing to let us present gay stories," Meron says. "People get the company's traditional American family image mixed up with what is in fact a very inclusive, forward-thinking company."

Zadan says Disney championed the Cammermeyer film all along and is equally receptive to Storyline's and Barwood's upcoming production What Makes a Family a made-for TV movie about a lesbian couple raising a baby. "Disney knows it has to compete with cable, which built its audience on controversial programming," he says. "The networks are catching up with more progressive programming, and as usual Disney is leading the pack"

Judging by the company's months of indecision, taking the lead on Ellen didn't appeal to everyone at Disney. But when the studio finally agreed to open Ellen Morgan's closet, the show's first coming-out script was deemed not gay enough, say executive producers Dava Savel and Mark Driscoll, who cowrote the episode with DeGeneres and staff writers Tracy Newman and Jonathan Stark. "The folks at Touchstone actually sent the first draft of the script back," Driscoll recalls. "They said we had been too careful and hadn't dealt deeply enough with the core of the issue. Here we were, trying to be so cautious with this sensitive I topic, and they wanted more."

So did DeGeneres. "She didn't want to tiptoe around the issue," says Savel. "She came up with the idea of outing Ellen Morgan in the first place, and once Touchstone warmed to it, their main concern was where we could take the show in the long run. They were really very supportive, considering that they knew we would lose some sponsors and that the radicals would have a field day. But that was secondary to letting the character and the show grow."

That growth will inevitably lead to fallout over Ellen Morgan's revelation. Several Ellen sponsors have already defected, and the taping of the comingout episode was disrupted by a bogus bomb threat. Predictably, the religious right is on the march: The Rev. Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association has peppered the media for months with outraged reactions, and in late March, Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell joined in with a campaign urging more sponsors to drop the show.

More surprising, and perhaps more disturbing, is a March TV Guide survey indicating that a whopping 63% of those familiar with Ellen had little interest in watching an episode in which Ellen Morgan comes out and that 37% of viewers questioned thought a gay lead in a prune-time sitcom was a bad idea. A meager 11% liked the concept.

Ultimately, viewer statistics such as these will decide Ellen's fate. By now Disney has proved it's willing to weather boycotts and bomb scares to let Ellen Morgan come out. It remains to be seen whether Disney's all-American fans will embrace Ellen once she does.

Meron, for one, is optimistic. "People see Disney as a squeaky-dean image of America," the producer says. "But in tact, the company has become a more realistic reflection of America, one that includes gays and lesbians. That's only fair, since so many of us are creating those images in the first place."

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RELATED ARTICLE: All about Ellen

So you think Ellen's Morgan's coming-out is easy? Comic KATE CLINTON offers up her insights on the evolution of TV's first lesbian lead

Three Ellens are in this coming-out story. Ellen of Morgan is a TV sitcom character who gradually realizes she is a lesbian and comes out to herself, then friends and family.

Ellen of DeGeneres is a huge public personality, a smart businesswoman, and an employee of Disney/ABC who is taking the risky step of having her TV character come out.

Of course, anyone who thinks Ellen DeGeneres got up one morning--on her side of the bed--and thought, Damn it, the show is tanking--I think Ellen should come out, ordered up the episode, and that was that is just plain naive.

Ellen's dad is Disney. His first reaction is not "How can we support you through this?" He's worried about what the neighbors think. Ellen's mom is Publicist. She knows what's best for her daughter and tries to control the spin--"It's just a phase she's going through"; "Could you dress more feminine?"; "See, she's dating. Who cares if it's Mr. Wrong?"

Her family of fans is alternately kind and impatient. She has an annoying distant cousin named Adam Advocate who always tries to talk to her at family functions. She's so mad at him, she won't even give him the time of day. A relative on her father's side, Si Entology, is willing to cover for her, arrange a fake marriage, even get her a couple of kids. Si says what she does in the privacy of her own bedroom is nobody's business, but he can make it his.

The essential Ellen, the very private one beneath all the others, is exhausted from all the comings-out and is going to be relieved when it's over. Ellen told me so months ago when we were discussing how late our friends Julie and Melissa's baby was and that she, Ellen, was born a couple of weeks late. "I guess I never wanted to come out." she joked Ellen (of DeGenerous) got me two tickets to this year's Grammys--if not her, who? I was late. It was pouring. The cabdriver let me out on the wrong side of New York's Madison Square Garden. The place was double-barricaded, cops everywhere. I went up to one and said I had tickets and needed to get in. He said, "Where'd you get the tickets?" I hesitated, then tried, "Ellen DeGeneres gave them to me." He said, "Are you her girlfriend?" I laughed. No. As if Ellen would make her girlfriend wait in the ram. Then he asked. "Can I fix you up with my sister?" and called his partner over: "Joe, she'd like my sister, wouldn't she?" I said I already had a girlfriend, that she was inside. "It's our ninth anniversary, and she is so steamed at me, if I don't get in there soon, there won't be a tenth." They opened the barricades and waved me in. "Say hi to Ellen!"