Florida wants to punish Disney for supporting gay people

Oh dear god, this is such a mess…okay, here’s what happening in Florida.

There’s a good chance you’ve heard by now about HB 1557, a Florida bill (now passed into law) known popularly as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. It got that name because its stated aim — as set out in its preamble — is to prohibit “classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity” in kindergarten through third grade, as if mentioning the existence of homosexuality were some kind of curse that will instantly corrupt kids…including gay kids and the kids of gay parents, I guess. And of course discussion of heterosexuality isn’t prohibited because it’s not wicked and perverted like homosexuality? No one said it made sense.

Also, the bill is not written with nearly enough precision to let teachers know what is or isn’t over the line, and there’s no guarantee the prohibition on daring to mention that gay people exist would stop at third grade. The bill is a homophobic piece of trash that should absolutely be opposed by anyone who cares even a little about basic human rights.

Disney, which has a huge presence in Florida since that’s where Walt Disney World is located, probably wants to be seen as being run by those sorts of people…but it’s also a huge corporation that wants to appeal to as broad an audience as possible, which means tip-toeing around potentially divisive issues. For a long time, the company resisted weighing in on this matter, continuing to give money to the campaigns of legislators who supported the bill as its own employees staged walkouts. Finally, after much pressure, Disney CEO Bob Chapek named the bill “yet another challenge to basic human rights,” committed to fighting similar legislation elsewhere and paused political donations in Florida pending review.

Government bigots vs corporate cowards battle royale

Now, we find out why Disney was so hesitant to make a move, as Variety reports that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis intends to discuss with the state Legislature the possibility of terminating the Reedy Creek Improvement District, the special self-governing district that allows Disney to control and expand Disney World as it likes without government involvement. So under the current plan, which was put into action in 1967, Disney maintains its own roads, contracts police departments and comes up with its own building codes. Fifty-three people live in the district, all of them Disney employees.

And frankly, maybe Disney’s special privileges should end — the idea of a corporation basically being given the powers of a government is a little unsettling. But for the governor to end them because he’s ticked that the company would dare oppose his hate-mongering skid mark of a law? Possibly the right outcome, extremely wrong reasons.

I don’t think anyone looks particularly good in this situation, but I give Disney some credit for growing a backbone after failing to do so resulted in too much bad PR. We’ll see what happens in the face of this new pressure from the other side.

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