Disney’s staunch advocacy for LGBT rights over parents’ rights may mean the end of the special self-governing district that the entertainment behemoth has enjoyed since 1967.
On Tuesday, as a special session devoted to redistricting started, the Republican-led Legislature moved forward with measures aimed at dissolving the Reedy Creek Improvement District. The site covers 25,000 acres spanning Orange and Osceola counties.
According to the News Service of Florida, Reedy Creek has jurisdiction over the traditional functions of local government in Florida, such as governing land usage and providing fire protection and water and wastewater service. The district is managed by a five-member board, elected by local landowners.
If the legislation succeeds, ultimately by getting Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ approval, Disney would come under the jurisdiction of the local officials in those counties next year.
The NSF noted that final votes on the measures could come this week.
The crux of this debate is Florida’s new Parental Rights in Education law, which prohibits school districts and classroom teachers from implementing lesson plans covering sexual orientation or gender identity in grades K-3. The law takes effect July 1.
Disney remained mum on the bill during the legislative session. That stance drew the ire of some of its LGBT workforce.
The company eventually cracked under the pressure applied internally by employees and externally by Democrats, including in the White House, and LGBT activists. CEO Bob Chapek denounced the measure, which proponents have called an “anti-grooming” bill.
After DeSantis signed it in late March, Disney claimed that it “should never have passed” and vowed to fight for repealing the law in the Legislature or getting it overturned in the courts.
DeSantis and other Republicans, in addition to fighting the lie that the bill bans teachers from saying the word “gay,” have criticized Disney for supporting the indoctrination of Florida’s youngest students in sexual politics of all stripes.
Republicans in the Legislature also eyed Disney’s select standing after the company went woke and appeared to belie the family-friendly image that is its trademark. The suspicion of Disney’s agenda among conservatives only got stronger after videos surfaced of high-level company execs admitted they openly infused their products with the LGBT agenda – and pledged to do even more.
Democrats have accused Republicans, and specifically DeSantis, of wanting to “punish” Disney.
But those Democrats never seem to explain why, by criticizing DeSantis, they support Disney’s efforts to undermine parental rights in schools, and by extension, its willingness to subject K-3 children to sophisticated and arguably inappropriate gender ideology topics.
Besides dissolving the Reedy Creek district, the other bill in the Legislature would eliminate a carve-out for theme parks in a 2021 law that seeks to hold social-media companies accountable for dropping users from their platforms or flagging their posts, according to NSF.
House Speaker Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, said the “most troubling” thing about Disney is that the company used its enormous clout to spread misinformation about the Parental Rights in Education law – which was claiming people in schools could not “say gay.”
“I think using its corporate power to do that, using the benefits that the taxpayers have given them for so many years to do that, is wildly inappropriate. So I think the governor’s anger was well-placed, and we’re happy to take it up,” said Sprowls, according to NSF.
Rep. Randy Fine, the Republican sponsor of the bill from Brevard County, noted that Disney or the operators of five other special districts that could be affected by the bill could petition to have their status reinstated next year.
But Fine suggested Disney was the real target, telling the House State Affairs Committee, “When you poke the bear or you kick the bees’ nest, sometimes issues come out.”
Fine also reminded his colleagues that the idea was his — and not DeSantis’ bill.
“We (Republicans) are not automatons, and we do not take orders,” Fine said.
According to Fine, should the Reedy Creek district be dissolved, its debt obligations, revenues and responsibilities would fall to Orange and Osceola counties and the cities of Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, NSF noted.
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