Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis once again fired back at the Walt Disney Company for their attacks on legislation he has signed into law that ensures parental rights in education.
Despite no mention of the phrase in the law, opponents of the legislation have dubbed it the “don’t say gay” bill.
The relevant portion of the law says, “Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
Despite the text of the law, Disney has vowed to challenge the law in court. DeSantis responded, “The state of Florida is governed according to the interests of the people, not according to the political posturing of corporate executives in California. We will never allow corporate influence to repeal the substantive rights of parents in our state.”
Disney has doubled down on an effort to promote LGBTQ characters in their programming, according to journalist Christopher Rufo who obtained an internal video showing employees discussing Disney’s response to the Florida law.
Disney executive producer Latoya Raveneau said her team implemented a “not-at-all-secret gay agenda” and is regularly “adding queerness” to children’s programming.
In the recorded video, Raveneau said, “I was just wherever I could just basically adding queerness…if you see anything queer in the show… no one would stop me.”
Rufo shared another clip to his Twitter page showing Disney corporate president Karey Burke saying that she wants to have as many LGBTQ characters as possible in Disney shows.
Burke said, “as the mother [of] one transgender child and one pansexual child,” she supports having “many, many, many LGBTQIA characters in our stories.”
At a shareholder meeting earlier this month, Disney CEO Bob Chapek made his opposition to the law known. “We were opposed to the bill from the outset, but we chose not to take a public position on it because we thought we could be more effective working behind the scenes, engaging directly with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle,” Chapek said.
DeSantis responded to the CEO by pointing out the hypocrisy of Disney for doing business with Communist China. He said the following:
“You have companies, like at Disney, that is going to say and criticize parents’ rights, they’re going to criticize the fact that we don’t want transgenderism in kindergarten in first-grade classrooms. If that’s the hill they’re going to die on, then how do they possibly explain lining their pockets with their relationship from the Communist Party of China? Because that’s what they do, and they make a fortune, and they don’t say a word about the really brutal practices that you see over there at the hands of the CCP.”
