The suddenly fractious relationship between the Walt Disney Company and Florida Republicans only grows more so by the day.
At a press conference on Thursday, Governor Ron DeSantis declared that a carve-out for Disney World included in his recently signed Big Tech bill “was wrong and should be repealed.”
The latest volley came after Disney condemned DeSantis for signing the Parental Rights in Education bill which bars “classroom instruction…on sexual orientation or gender identity” in kindergarten through third-grade classrooms.
Adopting the language of its progressive critics, Disney dubbed the bill “the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill,” said that it “should never have passed,” and reaffirmed the company’s commitment to seeing it repealed.
The company was not always so vocal. Disney was first dragged into the controversy when LGBT activists critiqued it for not stating its opposition to the bill publicly as it came up through the legislature. Almost immediately, the company did issue a statement, with CEO Bob Chapek explaining that Disney “thought we could be more effective working behind-the-scenes, engaging directly with lawmakers — on both sides of the aisle.”
Just how hard were they working behind the curtain?
At a press conference on Tuesday, DeSantis cast doubt on Chapek’s version of events, remarking that Chris Sprowls, the speaker of Florida’s House of Representatives, never even heard from Disney while the bill was making its way through the legislative process.
Sprowls confirmed as much in a Thursday interview with National Review. Even as the company was supposedly working to effectively push back on the legislation, it never picked up the phone to speak with the most powerful member of the House.
What’s more, Sprowls pointed out, is that there is no record of any lobbyist working on behalf of Disney ever having lobbied any member of the Florida House on the bill.
“We checked the action packets for the House Education and Employment, and Judiciary, and Senate Appropriations Committee hearings where HB 1557 was considered,” said Sprowls. “The Walt Disney Corporation did not submit any appearance cards on the bill for any of these meetings. Furthermore, the Florida House requires lobbyists to identify which bills they are lobbying on and no Disney lobbyist registered on HB 1557.”
The registry indicates that Disney had at least 19 different representatives lobbying members of the House on a number of different pieces of legislation in 2021, including the Big Tech bill from which it was granted an exemption. There is no record that a registered lobbyist advocated against HB 1557 for the company.
Reporting has indicated that Disney was active in opposing the bill as it came to a head in the Senate, but its nonexistent initial opposition, combined with its sudden propensity for denunciations, has alienated more Republicans than just the firebrand governor.
Meanwhile, leaks unearthed by Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute have prompted even more anger at the company. The clips show executives at the company pledging their commitment to depicting more transgender and gender non-conforming characters, as well as boasting about removing references to “ladies and gentlemen” and “boys and girls” at its parks and resorts. In one clip, Karey Burke, president of Disney's General Entertainment Content says that the company must present more “queer leads” in its largely child-oriented stories.
“Disney's strategy of benefiting from Florida's business-friendly climate while adopting a woke agenda to socially re-engineer Florida is running out of rope,” Sprowls told National Review. “Their selective outrage — which doesn't seem to apply to the state's corporate tax breaks — is an insult to the majority of Americans who agree with us that instruction on gender identity doesn't belong in the classrooms of 5-year-olds.”
“The only thing Disney's corporate leadership has been successful at doing is making a mockery of what their company has stood for all of these years,” he added.
Disney did not respond to a request for comment.
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