The controversy over Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law (colloquially called the “Don’t Say Gay” law) has continued, with certain Florida politicians and the Walt Disney Company on opposite sides of the debate.
We’ve already covered several developments in the story, including protests by Disney employees over the company’s initial silence on the bill, Flordia Governor Ron DeSantis signing the bill into law, and Disney’s subsequent commitment to supporting organizations that are trying to repeal the law. Now, some legislators are threatening to repeal a different Florida law, which could impact both Disney World and the communities in Orange and Osceola Counties. Find out what Governor DeSantis has to say about this controversy.
Earlier in the week, Republican legislator Spencer Roach tweeted that two meetings had been held to discuss a possible repeal of the 1967 Reedy Creek Improvement Act. This act essentially formed a government — the Reedy Creek Improvement District — that operates only inside of Disney World and takes care of municipal duties like road maintenance, water and power supply, and emergency services.
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. If Disney wants to embrace woke ideology, it seems fitting that they should be regulated by Orange County. pic.twitter.com/6sj29Gj6Wz
— SpencerRoach (@SpencerRoachFL) March 30, 2022
Learn more about the Reedy Creek Improvement District here.
In retaliation for Disney’s pushback against the “Don’t Say Gay” law, legislators want to repeal the Reedy Creek Improvement Act and thus take away some freedoms that Disney World now has as an essentially self-governing area. Governor Ron DeSantis commented on this possibility during a news conference in Ponte Vedra Beach this week, according to Click Orlando.
Specifically, DeSantis said, “I would not say that that’d be retaliatory. I mean, the way I view it is, you know, there are certain entities that have exerted a lot of influence through corporate means to generate special privileges in the law, and I don’t think we should have special privileges in the law at all.”
DeSantis said that all “special privileges in the law” should be removed in Florida, but he has not detailed what that process would look like yet. Although he said the repeal would not be retaliatory, DeSantis cited Disney’s recent opposition to the “Don’t Say Gay” law during his announcement: “I think that’s one of the reasons they’ve got so far over their skis on this on this parental rights stuff, because I think they’re used to having their way and they’re not used to having people that will stand in their way and say, ‘Actually, the state of Florida is going to be governed by the best interest of the people in Florida.'”
And at another news conference this week, DeSantis reiterated his thoughts on the subject: “You should not have one organization that is able to dictate policy in all these different realms, and they have done that for many, many years. And if that stops now, which it should, that would be a good thing for Florida.”
We’ll continue to follow this story and report on new developments, so stay tuned with AllEars for all the latest Disney news.
Click here to learn about Disney’s statement when the “Don’t Say Gay” bill was signed into law.
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I am a Florida resident. Time to stop special treatments of Disney. Is time for them to pay their fair of taxes.
Amazing how all the comments are one-sided. Dissenting views are probably eliminated.
First, Universal is smart. They just kept their mouths shut.
If not for Florida and DeSantis Disney would be in deeper financial downturn from the pandemic. Florida let them open in 3 months. Look what happened in CA and other overseas parks. How about all the Disney fan sites like this one, the travel industry? Because of DeSantis their doors are still open. May have been a different story if there was a different governor!
As for this bill, if all the media outlets were honest they would print what is in the bill. They always skip the most important line. “This applies to children in pre-K to 3rd grade.
Disney jumped into the middle of this. It’s ok for one side to shout down and cancel dissenting opinions, when the other side pushes back the cancel culture goes ballistic.
These comments are funny, you act like Disney is going to pack up and move to another state if they don’t get their way.
Stay out of politics Disney!!!
Actually, the govt has the leverage here, not Disney. No way they can up and move, they are stuck in Fla. And by losing their special status, they can get taxed more to pay for the services.
Haha, yeah let’s threaten the states biggest employer, biggest source of tourism revenue, which keeps the residents from having to pay state income tax. This is all political theatre.
So sad to see things break down into a retaliatory battle. Florida is biting the hand that feeds it.
then the state of florida would be responsible to keep and maintain all of disney’s roadways and other things that disney takes care of themselves. don’t mess with walt’s vision and dreams. leave the magic of walt disney world alone.
Perhaps someone should remind the Governor how many dollars WDW contributes to the State, County and local revenues & how many Floridians WDW employs.