The Walt Disney Co. is the hospitality linchpin of Florida’s tourism-dependent economy, but that isn’t sparing the foodservice and lodging giant from threats of a gut punch from the state.
The California-based parent of Walt Disney World, Florida’s largest employer, has been openly and sharply critical of the effort by Gov. Ron DeSantis to ban teachers from covering sexual orientation and gender identification issues in kindergarten through the third grade. The governor says the measure is necessary to keep youngsters from being indoctrinated into embracing nontraditional lifestyles.
He signed a bill establishing that policy as law on Monday.
Disney has blasted DeSantis and the state legislature for what it characterizes as a bald attempt to marginalize members of the LGBTQI+ community and bolster resistance to its members. After DeSantis signed his pet bill, the entertainment giant issued this statement:
“Florida’s HB 1557, also known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, should never have passed and should never have been signed into law. Our goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that. We are dedicated to standing up for the rights and safety of LGBTQI+ members of the Disney family, as well as the LGBTQ+ community in Florida and across the country.”
The response was consistent with Disney's reputation as a progressive employer that has promoted the rights and equal treatment of LGBTQI+ employees.
DeSantis fired back with assertions that he wouldn’t be cowed by a “woke” corporation from Hollywood that thinks it runs the state.
He took the additional step on Thursday of saying he might look into the repeal of a political concession that was granted to Disney in 1967, two years before ground was broken in Orlando for what would become Walt Disney World. Known as the Reedy Creek Improvement Act, the measure essentially entitled Disney to run the huge swathe of land it purchased in central Florida as if it was a private estate.
Company founder Walt Disney wanted that sort of authority after seeing how Anaheim, Calif., allowed the area around DisneyLand to be packed with T-shirt shops, motels and other feeder businesses that didn’t fit the theme park’s style and image.
“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 a press conference Thursday.
Disney has yet to respond to that salvo.
It is unclear how the rollback of the Reedy Creek concession might affect Disney’s Florida operations and corporate finances.
Political analysts are unanimous in reading DeSantis’ threat as a purely political reaction to Disney’s resistance. The governor is widely seen as a likely candidate for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in 2024. They theorize that he’s publicly battling the entertainment giant as a way of currying favor with far-right members of his party.
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