Florida governor Ron DeSantis issued a sharp rebuke of Disney on Thursday, calling out the company’s “woke” stance on the state’s Parental Rights in Education bill and its ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
A video obtained by Fox News shows DeSantis telling supporters in Boca Raton that Florida’s policies must be based on the “best interest of Florida citizens, not on the musings of woke corporations.”
In a video exclusively obtained by @FoxNews Digital. @GovRonDeSantis slams #Disney saying “In Florida, our policies got to be based on the best interest of Florida citizens, not on the musing of woke corporations.” pic.twitter.com/Op87xgsLzB
— Kelly Laco (@kelly_laco) March 10, 2022
DeSantis’s comments come one day after he fielded a concerned call from Disney CEO Bob Chapek and company executives over the bill, which prohibits gender-ideology and sexual-orientation curriculum for kindergartners through third-graders in the state. The bill passed the state legislature on Tuesday. DeSantis is expected to sign the bill into law imminently.
Chapek said he called DeSantis on Wednesday morning to “express our disappointment and concern that if the legislation becomes law, it could be used to unfairly target gay, lesbian, non-binary, and transgender kids and families,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. He said DeSantis agreed to a follow-up conversation and was “very open” to hearing him out.
On Thursday, DeSantis said there is “zero” chance he will change his position on prohibiting the instruction of “transgenderism in kindergarten classrooms.”
“When you have companies that have made a fortune off being family friendly and catering to families and young kids, they should understand that parents of young kids do not want this injected into their kids’ kindergarten classroom,” he said.
“You have companies, like at Disney, that are 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,” he added. “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.”
Chapek first came out against the bill during the company’s annual shareholder meeting when he announced Disney planned to donate $5 million to LGBTQ groups.
“I understand that many are upset that we did not speak out against the bill,” Chapek said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “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, working with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.”
While opponents of the bill have claimed it will prevent elementary-school students from expressing their gender identities and sexual orientations, the legislation’s language explicitly concerns classroom instruction and teaching material.
DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw confirmed that Disney contacted the governor’s office on Wednesday and said it was the first time the administration had heard from the company regarding the bill.
“The governor did take the call from Mr. Chapek,” she said. “The governor’s position has not changed. No in-person meeting has been scheduled yet.”
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