Florida Gov. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed Friday night a law to end Walt Disney World’s special powers of governing the state. After the company publicly opposed a new law on parental rights, this was done. DeSantis claimed Disney had lied to him about the content of the “Parental Rights in Education” law. DeSantis also stated that he found the pledge of the company to fight the act unacceptable.
DeSantis stated, “You are a Burbank corporation and you intend to make my parents miserable.” DeSantis said that they see it as a provocation and will fight back.
The Florida Senate voted 23-16 Wednesday to repeal the status. The House of Representatives voted in the same manner with a 70-38 vote on Thursday.
The Reedy Creek Improvement Act was named for the special status, and it was signed into law in January by Gov. Disney’s lobbying efforts prompted Claude Kirk to take action. The entertainment company suggested building a community oriented towards recreation on 25,000 acres in Central Florida’s Orange and Osceola counties. The area was comprised of 38.5 miles mostly uninhabited swampland, pasture, and other natural resources.
Orange County and Osceola County did not have the necessary resources or services to complete the project. The state legislature teamed up with Disney to create Reedy Creek Improvement District. This taxing special district gives the company the same authority as a county government.
Soon after DeSantis signed the parental rights bill, Disney released a statement. They also promised to fight the law in courts.
Disney stated that Florida’s HB1557, also known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Law, should not have passed and should have been repealed. As a company, we want the legislature to repeal this law. We will continue to support state and national organizations working to achieve this. We will continue to fight on behalf of the safety and rights for LGBTQ+ Disney family members, and the LGBTQ+ community in Florida and across the country.
DeSantis repeatedly rejected the company, and promised to fight “wokeness” that he claimed the company promotes.
DeSantis said earlier this month that there were policy disputes, and that that’s fine. However, imposing an ideology on the state is a grave threat.
DeSantis stated, “This wokeness will destroy this country” if it goes on unabated. “So, we in Florida take a very strong stance against that.”
The White House said that it was against Florida’s attempt to attack Disney on Thursday.
“So, our view is that the Don’t Say Gay’ Bill is clearly wrong. This is our view: It’s wrong.” Karine Jean-Pierre (White House deputy press secretary), stated this during an Air Force One flight from Washington, Washington, to Portland, Oregon. We are against the governor taking action against a company because they opposed this bill. We will leave it as is for now.
DeSantis also signed the Disney measure into law. DeSantis also signed the Stop WOKE Act. This prohibits critical race theory from being discussed in schools or corporate settings, such as employee trainings.
The bill was introduced by DeSantis last December, and is known as the “Individual Freedom”. Schools and corporations are prohibited from “subjecting any student or employee to training or instruction that espouses, advances, or compels such individual believe some concepts constitutes discrimination based on race, color or gender.”
Florida’s Department of Education previously set a ban on CRT-inspired content in K-12 schools. DeSantis strongly condemned critical racism theory, which involves tearing apart parts of society to reveal systemic racism beneath the surface.
DeSantis said he signed Friday’s measure as a sign of his belief in education, not indoctrination. “We believe freedom in Florida means freedom from oppressive ideologies without consent.
He stated, “We’re not going to use tax dollars to teach our children to hate this nation or hate each other.”
The new law also removes Disney from the Big Tech censorship bill.
