The controversy continues. The Florida legislature passed legislation on Thursday removing favorable status from the Disney World amusement park because the entertainment giant has defended certain progressive issues unappreciated by elected Republicans.
The text should now be signed by conservative Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose ties with Disney have soured of late, despite the company acting as a tourist magnet in his sunny state.
Mr. DeSantis does not accept that Disney CEO Bob Chapek has publicly opposed a law he initiated that would ban the teaching of subjects related to sexual orientation or gender identity in elementary schools. This text is nicknamed “Sag nicht gay” (“Don’t talk about gays”) by its opponents.
The two chambers of parliament in the capital, Tallahassee, each voted in favor of the bill with a Republican majority: the Senate on Wednesday by 23 votes to 16, followed by the House of Representatives on Thursday by 70 votes to 38. A double vote spells setbacks for Disney, which remains an economic heavyweight in the region.
55 years of favorable status
The special status in the crosshairs of the text, granted to Disney during the construction of Disney World theme park in the 1960s, affords the entertainment giant great local management autonomy and exempts it from most government regulations.
This amusement park near Orlando is one of the most visited in the world and the Disney brand remains one of Americans’ favorites. But, mired in the controversy, the giant is seeing a spate of criticism that would have done him good, as the stock fell 2.4% in the stock market after the vote to end at its lowest level in months.
The controversy over Ron DeSantis’ law on LGBT issues in schools has proved a headache for Disney after an internal memo was leaked showing Bob Chapek was unwilling to comment on the law. Employees of the company then demonstrated in March against the company’s “apathy” and calls for a boycott began to circulate on social media, eventually leading to the CEO declaring against the law.
75,000 jobs
But with the recent return of the pendulum, criticism is now strongest on the Republican side. “Disney doesn’t say a word about the dictatorship in China because it would cost them billions of dollars. But he has no problem using his corporate power to lie about laws passed democratically by Florida lawmakers,” Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican tenor, said this week.
Randy Fine, a Republican-elect who is leading the parliamentary initiative to limit Disney World’s exemption status, recalled that Disney is just a “guest” in Florida.
Relations between Ron DeSantis and Disney, which notably employed more than 75,000 people at Disney World and had contributed financially to the Republican candidate’s campaign, were not always strained, let alone the Democratic camp. But they’ve now gotten mad and the giant has suspended this election funding.