Disney's activism against Florida's parental rights law that prohibits sex education for elementary school kids has GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis taking a look at Disney's special self-governing privileges on its Disney World grounds near Orlando.
"What I would say as a matter of 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 a Thursday news conference in West Palm Beach.
Disney has been permitted to self-govern on its grounds under a 55-year-old state law.
But Disney's war of words with DeSantis — under pressure from LGBTQ+ activists opposed to Florida's new law — might put those privileges under review by the state.
Florida's parental rights law "prohibits classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in certain grade levels."
The law protects kids in third grade or younger from being led on "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" because it is "not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students."
DeSantis' homing in on Disney comes after a Republican bill reining in Big Tech has given Disney a "carve out" at the "eleventh hour" for theme parks, he lamented.
"I'm thinking to myself, 'This is ridiculous,'" DeSantis said. "Honestly, it was embarrassing.
"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."
With Disney's activism flying in the face of a majority of Floridians, DeSantis continued, it "lost a lot of the pull that they used to have," which is a "good thing for our state because the state should be governed by the best interest of the people."
"I would say any special privileges that are in law I would like to get rid of generally," DeSantis said. "I think in this particular case with Disney, I just don't think you have very many people in the legislature anymore who are going to be able to defend a lot of what has been done over many years to really have them almost govern themselves in some of these things.
"That was probably never appropriate to start, but is certainly not appropriate now at this point."
Disney World was given control over operations such as law enforcement and fire protection in an arrangement that was created to attract the theme park to the state in 1967.
"Yesterday was the 2nd meeting in a week w/fellow legislators to discuss a repeal of the 1967 Reedy Creek Improvement Act, which allows Disney to act as its own government," State Rep. Spencer Roach, R-Lee County, tweeted Wednesday morning. "If Disney wants to embrace woke ideology, it seems fitting that they should be regulated by Orange County."
DeSantis, who is seeking reelection, faces challenger John Joseph Mercadante in the state's Aug. 23 Republican primary. And six Democrats are vying for their party's nomination, including Rep. Charlie Crist, who served as Florida governor from 2007 to 2011, according to Ballotpedia.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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