OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is continuing his pushback against the Walt Disney Co. after the entertainment giant came out last year in opposition to a parental rights bill, and its then-CEO vowed to get it repealed.
On Thursday, the Republican governor called for a special session of the state legislature in order to finalize procedures ahead of Disney’s special tax status coming to an end in June. The GOP legislature voted to strip the company of its status last May after then-CEO Bob Chapek publicly opposed Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education” law barring schools from presenting LGBTQ curriculum to K-3 students.
DeSantis told a news conference, “We’re not going to have a corporation controlling its own government. So the state’s going to have a board to run it. So Disney will not have self-governing status anymore. We’re not going to bend the knee to woke executives in California.”
Disney’s new status is not set to take effect until June, but DeSantis called the special session to fine-tune the measure and get everything set in stone for the transition.
The law calls for ending Walt Disney World’s special tax and self-governing status established in 1967 as the Reedy Creek development.
“What I would say as a matter of the first principle is I don’t support special privileges in law just because a company is powerful and they’ve been able to wield a lot of power,” DeSantis said at the time.
“I think what has happened is there’s a lot of these special privileges that are not justifiable, but because Disney had held so much sway, they were able to sustain a lot of special treatment over the years,” he added.
Last year during the dust-up between Disney and the Florida legislature, a survey found that in greater numbers, Americans were rejecting the adoption of far-left LGBTQ ideology by the Walt Disney Co.
The Trafalgar Group found that nearly 7 in 10 Americans don’t want to continue doing “business” with Disney over its increasing ‘wokeness’ and instead are searching out more “family-friendly alternatives.”
The survey found that an overwhelming majority of 68.2 percent of voters are now “less likely to do business with Disney.” Of that number, 57.2 percent said they are “much less likely” to buy from Disney.
Also, 69 percent noted they would be far more likely to “support family-friendly alternatives to Disney.”
Even more notably, the survey found that 48.2 percent of Democrats also said they are less likely to “do business” with Disney over the company’s stance on adding LGBTQ characters and language to its park, shows, and in the company’s films.
Recently, a key Disney heir announced that his child is transgender, and the firm’s CEO said that she is the “mother of two queer children — one transgender child and one pansexual child.”
“These numbers reveal clearly that 2022’s parent’s revolt movement is growing stronger every day. Parents are infuriated by the widespread leftists assault on their kids,” said Mark Meckler, president of Convention of States Action, upon releasing the survey.
“Disney is about to learn that attempting to ideologically and sexually groom our children is a recipe for brand destruction, costing the company massively in both customers and revenue. Who in the hell is in charge at Disney?”
“Our numbers also found that parents are actively seeking family-friendly alternatives to Disney, which is great news for our friends at The Daily Wire Kids, at Angel Studios, and for creators looking to capitalize on a massive marketplace opportunity to provide more than two-thirds of parents the family-friendly choices they’re looking for,” he added.
Several Republicans, including Sen. Tom Cotton, have also railed at “liberal corporate executives” at Disney over the entertainment giant’s increasingly ‘woke’ agenda.
The Arkansas Republican also accused the company of benefitting from its relationship with the Chinese government while attempting to posture over morality.
“Disney is a charter member of the China lobby, so its liberal corporate executives can spare us the moral outrage about protecting our kids from indoctrination,” the lawmaker tweeted. “Walt Disney must be rolling over in his grave at the clowns running his company.”
