Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday slammed a Disney executive for her opposition to his Parental Rights in Education law – while docking their ships in the Dominican Republic – a country that bans same-sex marriage and condones discrimination against gay people.
‘You’ve got to wonder why is the hill to die on to have transgenderism injected into kindergarten classrooms, or woke gender ideology injected into second grade classrooms. Why is that the hill to die on?’ he asked in a Tuesday night interview with FOX News’ Tucker Carlson.
‘Meanwhile if we’ve done a bill that prohibited talking about the abuse of Uyghurs in China, Disney would’ve supported that legislation. They won’t say a word about that,’ the Republican governor continued, earning a chuckle from Carlson.
‘So it’s just an odd manifestation of their corporate values that they actually do Disney Cruises, Tucker, to the nation of Dominica, which actually criminalizes homosexuality,’ DeSantis said, referring to laws in the Dominican Republic which ban gay marriage and make anti-gay discrimination legal.
‘So they’re fine doing that and lining their pockets, they’re fine lining their pockets from the CCP, and all the atrocities going on there,’ he continued, referring to the Chinese Communist Party, which the company thanked in the credits of its live-action Mulan reboot.
‘But it’s those kindergarteners in Florida that they really want to have transgenderism as part of their core curriculum in school.’
Disney has doubled down on its opposition to DeSantis’ so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill in recent weeks, following backlash from customers and employees for being hesitant to oppose the bill, which prohibits the teaching of gender ideology in kindergarten through third grade, when it was first passed.
On Monday, one of the company’s presidents is now vowing to include more gay-lead stories.
General Entertainment President Karey Burke vowed in a company-wide Zoom call that the company would do more to become more inclusive, vowing that 50 percent of characters and content would be from underrepresented groups.
Disney has also changed its standard greeting at its Lake Buena Vista theme park from welcoming ‘ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls’ to ‘dreamers of all ages.’
But even some of the most staunch fans are having trouble with the new woke changes, with some Disney World regulars saying they would cancel their season passes. Disney stock prices have plummeted 4 percent over the past month.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, left, slammed Disney executives for their hypocritical stance about his Parental Rights in Education law in an interview with Tucker Carlson Tuesday night
He pointed out that the company continues to dock its ships in the Dominican Republic, which has outlawed same-sex marriage and removed a clause to protect gay people from discrimination (file image)
Disney’s stocks have been plummeting in recent months as the company becomes increasingly more woke
DeSantis’ comments come after General Entertainment President Karey Burke vowed in a company-wide Zoom call that the company would do more to become more inclusive, vowing that 50 percent of characters and content would be from underrepresented groups.
She said the issue hit close to home for her, ‘as the mother of two queer children, actually, one transgender child and one pansexual child, and also as a leader.’
Burke also defended 20th Century Fox as ‘the home of really incredible, groundbreaking LGBTQIA stories over the years,’ but said more needed to be done – and introduced Disney’s ‘Reimagine Tomorrow’ campaign with the goal to represent more minority groups.
Under the proposal, half of regular and recurring characters across Disney General Entertainment scripted content would come from underrepresented groups.
‘We have many, many LGBTQIA characters in our stories, and yet we don’t have enough leads and narratives in which gay characters just get to be gay characters and not have to be about gay stories,’ she said in the Zoom call.
During that same all-hands meeting, television animation executive producer Latoya Raveneau gushed about Disney’s inclusivity and boasted about ‘adding queerness’ to shows and productions.
‘Our leadership over there has been so welcoming to my not-so-secret gay agenda,’ she said. ‘Wherever I could I was adding queerness. No one would stop me and no one was trying to stop me.’
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Campaign reports, only 8 percent of Americans identify as being a member of the LGBTQ community.
Videos from the meeting were leaked to conservative journalist Christopher Rufo of the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal, who first reported them on Twitter.
But the proposal is just one way the company is becoming increasingly woke following controversy over its delayed condemnation of the so-called Don’t Say Gay bill, which bans teaching kids lessons on sexuality, gender identity and sexual orientation ‘in a manner that is not age appropriate.’
In recent weeks, the company has reinstated a same-sex kiss in its upcoming Lightyear film, a Toy Story spin-off.
Disney president Karey Burke said in a company-wide Zoom meeting on Monday that the company will be increasing its representation of gay characters
The company has recently reinstated a same-sex kiss in the upcoming Lightyear film
Many Americans, though, see the company’s shift to woke policies as hypocritical.
The company has yet to condemn China’s genocide of the Uyghurs and has bowed to the Chinese Communist Party in the past, notably removing a joke about Tiananmen Square from an episode of The Simpsons and a kissing scene from its $200 million live-action adaptation of Mulan after their Chinese executives thought it was inappropriate.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, had determined that China has committed ‘genocide and crimes against humanity’ by repressing Uyghur Muslims in its Xinjiang region. His successor, Joe Biden, has not changed the nation’s opinion on the matter and authorized a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics in February.
A London tribunal in December accused China of subjecting them to forced sterilizations and abortions authorized by Beijing’s highest officials.
Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people in Xinjiang have been incarcerated without any justification, the tribunal’s chair Sir Geoffrey Nice QC said.
‘This vast apparatus of state repression could not exist if a plan was not authorized at the highest levels,’ he said as he delivered the tribunal’s findings.
The panel probing alleged human rights abuses – made up of nine lawyers and human rights experts – published their opinion after hearing allegations of torture, rape and inhumane treatment at two evidence sessions this year.
The panel said it was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that torture of thousands of Uyghurs had occurred, and upheld claims of imprisonment, forced transfer, enforced disappearances, rape and sexual violence, persecution and inhumane acts.
It added that that China’s President Xi Jinping and other senior officials ‘bear primary responsibility.’ Beijing has dismissed the findings.
DeSantis also pointed out in his interview with Tucker Carlson that the company still docks its ships in the Dominican Republic, promoting tourism in the country, which in 2010 enacted a new constitution that prohibited same-sex marriage.
Last year, the country also revised its penal code to remove a clause that criminalized discrimination based on sexual orientation.
In response, LGBTQ groups organized a social media campaign to encourage American tourists to boycott the country. The goal was to leverage the economic power of the American gay community and its allies to effect change on the country’s anti-gay policies, according to Mitu.
Still, the Disney continues to advertise its cruises to the Dominican Republic, with a website promoting its private beach in the country.
LGBT employees at the Walt Disney Company have walked out of the animation studio in recent weeks to condemn the company for not speaking out against the so-called Don’t Say Gay bill earlier
Employees are seen here last week protesting CEO Bob Chapek’s handling of the controversy surrounding the legislation
Disney has now issued a statement condemning DeSantis’ signing of the bill, weeks after it faced backlash from customers and employees for not immediately opposing the bill when it was first passed
Others, meanwhile, have condemned the entertainment company for its sudden woke shift, with some frequent Disney World guests telling FOX News they are getting rid of their season passes.
‘We’ve been going to Disney for a long time, and we are tired of the extreme changes that they seem to think are pleasing everyone, when if they actually spoke to people in the park they’d find out they’re not,’ Marsha from Winter Garden, Florida, said.
‘When our annual passes expired in February, we did not renew them because of our displeasure with the way Disney has gone overall, not just on the particular issue, but on all their wokeness.
‘Walt would be rolling over in his grave,’ Marsha, who identified herself as a retired teacher, added.
‘That is not the kind of thing that they should be focusing on K through 3,’ she said, noting there are ‘a lot more important topics’ children should be learning and she thinks they ‘need to be given a chance to develop themselves before they start being taught on what they should be.’
The so-called Don’t Say Gay bill was sponsored by Rep. Joe Harding, in response to stories about children discussing a desire to transition while at school, and some teachers’ decision to keep that secret from their parents or care-givers.
Harding had voiced concerns that coming out as gay was becoming ‘a trend’ for children. He also pushed for an amendment that would have essentially forced schools to out children to their parents, but ultimately moved to withdraw it.
He and other GOP lawmakers in Florida have argued that parents should be broaching these subjects with their children, rather than educators.
A Florida woman named Marsha told FOX News that she is canceling her season pass at Disney World over the company’s woke changes
Still, the Mickey Mouse company has seemed to bow down to woke interests following weeks of protests counter-protests and walkouts since Florida Gov. Ronald DeSantis first proposed the so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay.’
The legislation bans teaching kids lessons on sexuality, gender identity and sexual orientation ‘in a manner that is not age appropriate.’
As one of the state’s largest employers, some woke Disney employees were upset by the company’s slow response to disavow the bill, with some walking out of the company headquarters last week in protest.
But Disney CEO Bob Chapek originally defended the company’s refusal to condemn the bill in an internal memo on March 7.
In the note, Chapek said he was hesitant for Disney to speak out against the Florida bill, which has received condemnation for impeding students’ access to ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ information at elementary schools.
It has been dubbed the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill by critics who claim it bans any discussion pertaining to being gay in Florida schools.
Chapek claimed at the time that corporate statements ‘do very little to change outcomes or minds’ and instead are ‘often weaponized by one side or the other to further divide and inflame.’
That memo was soon met with a barrage of objections, as they were seen as a lack of support for the LGBT community. A campaign to boycott Disney circulated on social media.
Staff at Disney-owned Pixar Animation Studios even wrote in a letter to Chapek they were ‘disappointed, hurt, afraid and angry’ over their company’s silence on the passing of the bill.
And soon, a group of LGBTQ employees asked their co-workers to join them in walking out of their workplaces during their breaks every day since March 15 to demand Disney ‘protect employees and their families in the face of such open and unapologetic bigotry.’
In an attempt to mend his relationship with employees, Chapek has said that he plans to go on a global listening tour of employees, the Wall Street Journal reported.
On Monday, Disney also issued a statement condemning DeSantis’ signing of the bill, saying it ‘should never have passed and should never have been signed into law.
‘Our goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that.
‘We are dedicated to standing up for the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ members of the Disney family, as well as the LGBTQ+ community in Florida and across the country.’
DeSantis on Monday signed into law the parental rights bill that bans teachers from giving classroom instruction on ‘sexual orientation’ or ‘ gender identity’ in kindergarten through third grade
On Tuesday, after he signed the bill into law, DeSantis hit back at his critics in Hollywood, saying: ‘They don’t want to admit that they support a lot of the things that we’re providing protections against.
‘For example, they support sexualizing kids in kindergarten. They support injecting woke gender ideology into second grade classrooms… And so what they’re doing with these slogans and these narratives is they are trying to camouflage their true intentions.’
‘For Disney to come out and put a statement and say that the bill should have never passed and they are going to actively work to repeal it – I think, one, was fundamentally dishonest. But two, I think that crossed the line,’ DeSantis said during a press conference.
‘This state is governed by the interests of the people of the state of Florida. It is not based on the demands of California corporate executives. They do not run this state. They do not control this state,’ the governor added.