by Federico Rampini
Gov. DeSantis against the giant who suspended party funding under anti-gay laws in schools
On the one hand, there’s Ron DeSantis, the Italian-American who rules Florida, more Trumpian than Donald. On the other hand, Disney, a $73 billion multinational that has become a symbol of left-wing capitalism. He’s 43 years old, he debuted as a US military attorney on the Iraqi front, earned medals, a respectable record to contend with Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination. Disney has been a target of conservative America for some time: this giant, which ranges from films to amusement parks to cruises it abandoned to cancel culture, is rewriting classic fairy tales from Snow White to Peter Pan and apologizing because they didn’t were politically correct. Right-wing groups often stake entrances to Orlando’s Magic World to challenge the new Disney, where heroes must be of minority ethnic or LGBTQ+ origin.
The challenge
The recent war between Disney and Florida has broken out on school campuses, and the Republicans’ weapon is taxes. And Mickey even risks losing the copyright. The detonator is a law passed by DeSantis, the Parental Rights in Education Bill. His defense of parental rights in education has been branded by the left-wing opposition – a minority in Florida – as the law banning saying gay. It regulates sex education in state public schools and bans the topics of sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through third grade. After the third grade, sex education classes are allowed provided the subject matter is appropriate for the age of the students. Parents send their children to school for education, not militant indoctrination, says DeSantis.
sexual identity
The concern born of families. Talking about fluid sexual identity or gender reassignment issues at such a young age without involving parents scares many families. As the political agenda is set by transgender or binary or fluid rights nationwide, opinion polls show an increase in the percentage of children and young people who are questioning their gender. There are those who fear it’s also a fashion driven by new cultural models and youth icons.
contributions and taxes
Disney has come under tremendous pressure for its impressive presence in Florida, where it has 80,000 employees and is the world’s largest amusement park with 58 million visitors a year: Groups of employees have accused CEO Bob Chapek of failing to defend oppressed sexual minorities. The top executive took a bow and explained the company’s hostility to parental rights. He also announced that he would suspend all election funding for the Florida Republicans (with Disney paying dues to both parties, as elsewhere). DeSantis initiates the countermove: He will abolish the tax exemption of the multinational.
as an autonomous province
In 1967, at the request of founder Walt Disney, Florida designed a special administrative district around the Magic Kingdom. It is called the Reedy Creek Improvement District and functions as an autonomous province. It has tax haven status. In this area specially created for Disney World Park, the company enjoys relief and also deregulation of environmental and urban planning regulations. Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz estimates that all of these privileges save Disney $592 million annually and pass them on to our state’s other taxpayers. The offensive spreads across the country. At the Washington convention, Republican Congressman Jim Banks of Indiana proposes no longer to renew the copyright protecting Mickey Mouse and any games or devices that use his image: Historically, copyrights have regularly been renewed beyond their natural expiration .
culture wars
In this religious war between a multinational symbol of progressive capitalism and conservative America’s bastion of Florida, Republicans spare no blows. Right-wing media cite the concessions Disney is making in the name of its billionaire business to murderous, homophobic foreign regimes that censor sexual minorities: streaming service Disney+ has struck deals with a long list of Islamic countries where homosexuality is a crime; has censored some films to comply with Beijing government dictates. At midterm, in November, many American parents will go to the polls thinking of the cultural battles raging in the classrooms, perhaps more than a distant war on European soil.
April 22, 2022 (Modification April 22, 2022 | 07:23)
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