Florida votes to penalize Disney for being too progressive

The text was now set to be signed into law by conservative Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, whose relations with Disney have recently soured, despite the company operating as a tourist magnet in his sunny state.

M. DeSantis ne digère pas que Bob Chapek, le PDG de Disney, se soit genre prononcé publiquement contre une loi dont il est à l’origine, interdisant d’enseigner des sujets en lien avec l’orientation sexuelle ou l’identité de à Primary School.

Opponents of this text call it “Don’t say like me” (“Don’t talk about gays”).

Both houses of Parliament in the capital, Tallahassee, voted Republican in favor of the bill: the Senate on Wednesday by 23 to 16, followed by the House on Thursday by 70 to 38. A double vote is synonymous with Disney setbacks, which continues to be an economic heavyweight. in the region.

55 years of proper posture

The special place in the text cross was granted to Disney at the time the Disney World entertainment site was created in the 1960s, and it provides the entertainment giant with significant autonomy to local administration and exempts it from most state regulations.

This theme park near Orlando is among the most visited in the world and the Disney brand remains one of the favorites of Americans.

But the giant, mired in this controversy, is seeing a backlog of criticism that it would have done well, while the title on the stock exchange fell 2.4% after the vote, ending at its lowest level in months.

The Ron DeSantis law controversy on LGBT issues in schools has proven to be a nuisance to Disney after an internal memo was leaked showing that Bob Chapek was reluctant to take a stand on the law.

Then, in March, the group’s employees demonstrated against the group’s “apathy” and calls for a boycott began spreading on social networks, eventually leading to the CEO’s declaring against the law.

Return of the pendulum

But with the current return of the pendulum, criticism is now stronger from the Republican side.

“Disney doesn’t say a word about the dictatorship in China, because it will cost them billions of dollars. But he has no problem using his institutional power to lie about laws that have been democratically passed by Florida lawmakers,” Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican, said this week.

Randy Fine, an elected Republican at the forefront of a parliamentary initiative to reduce Disney World’s exemption status, noted that Disney was just a “guest” in Florida.

Relations were not always strained between Ron DeSantis and Disney, which notably employ more than 75,000 people at Disney World and contributed financially to the Republican candidate’s campaign, not to mention the Democratic camp.

But now they have gotten worse and the giant has suspended electoral funding.