Gina Carano Strikes Back

Disney’s Attempt At Dismissing Discrimination Case Rejected

Gina Carano, the once badass MMA fighter turned Mandalorian star, has filed her response to Disney’s attempt at dismissing her complaint. This comes one month after Disney and Lucasfilm have filed paperwork to have Gina Carano’s wrongful discharge and sex-discrimination suit tossed out. In their motion to dismiss, Disney states: “to publicly trivialize the Holocaust by comparing criticism of political conservatives to the annihilation of millions of Jewish people—notably, not ‘thousands’—was the final straw for Disney” and “Disney has a constitutional right not to associate its artistic expression with Carano’s speech, such that the First Amendment provides a complete defense to Carano’s claims.”

Disney fired Gina Carano almost three years ago for things she said and a meme she posted on the internet:

“After my 20 years of building a career from scratch, and during the regime of former Disney CEO Bob Chapek, Lucasfilm made this statement on Twitter, terminating me from The Mandalorian: ‘Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm & there are no plans for her to be in the future. Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural & religious identities are abhorrent & unacceptable.’”

Today is an important day for me–I am filing a lawsuit against @lucasfilm & @Disney

After my 20 years of building a career from scratch, and during the regime of former Disney CEO Bob Chapek, Lucasfilm made this statement on Twitter, terminating me from The Mandalorian: “Gina…
— Gina Carano 🕯 (@ginacarano) February 6, 2024

According to Deadline:

“‘After admitting that they discriminated against Carano for her personal political beliefs and subjected her to disparate treatment from her similarly situated male co-stars, The Walt Disney Company, Lucasfilm LTD, and Huckleberry Industries (collectively, “Defendants”) assert that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives them absolute immunity,’ says the May 9 response to defendants motion to dismiss from Carano’s Schaerr Jaffe lawyers filed in federal court in LA ’Defendants are incorrect.’”

Carano’s team states:

“Neither the First Amendment itself nor the few cases applying the First Amendment in the context of casting give employers the right to control or punish the personal speech of employees. None of Carano’s comments reference Defendants, Star Wars, or The Mandalorian, or had anything to do with Defendants. Carano’s claims do not seek to impose any message on Defendants or to change Defendants’ speech in any fashion.”
“Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss should be denied,”
“the First Amendment does not give Defendants the carte blanche authority to terminate Carano for expressing her personal beliefs.”

Carano says. “We believe strongly there are no grounds for a dismissal, and I should be allowed to proceed and state my case in the court of law.” Disney will have another chance to respond to Carano’s arguments before the official court date on June 12, in DTLA, where Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnet will hear arguments from each side’s attorneys. There, the judge will decide if the case will be moving forward or not.

We filed our response to Disney’s attempt to dismiss my Complaint. It’s pretty disappointing to me they misrepresented me even in their response. Just mind blowing the disrespect and lack of care for facts but sadly not surprising anymore. This behavior has become the norm.… https://t.co/PnI8o2LkX4
— Gina Carano 🕯 (@ginacarano) May 11, 2024

I’m sure Disney will file another dismissal request or something along those lines. Even though no press is bad press, Disney doesn’t want to have anything to do with this. This whole case ruins their reputation and the strength of their progressive values. How can you claim to be accepting, inclusive, and diverse (and all the other progressive words) and then fire someone for their personal views and the expression of those views – views that never caused anyone any type of harm whatsoever? I don’t think Gina is going anywhere, especially with Elon Musk supporting her. She has a strength that you can see in the way she carries herself and how she treats others. I hope she wins. This kind of thing must not be accepted or normalized. We all have our own opinions, and the last thing anyone needs is to be worried about expressing them.