Woke row forces Disney into ‘new civil war’ in US

THE Walt Disney Company has found itself on the front line of America’s culture war after it opposed a law banning any discussion of sexual orientation in classrooms for children under nine.

Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis, who proposed the bill, responded last week by stripping Disney of the ‘special status’ it has enjoyed since the construction of Disney World began in 1967.

The status gave the entertainment giant tax breaks and allowed it to effectively self-govern its sites.

DeSantis, tipped as a frontrunner to challenge Joe Biden in the 2024 US election, said: ‘I won’t support special privileges in law just because a company is powerful.’

Disney, Florida’s biggest employee with 77,000 workers, withdrew political funding from the Republican Party after scores of employees walked out saying the bill discriminated against gay and transgender children.

One Disney executive said: ‘The company has been forced on to the front line of the war against woke, which is not a position it wants to be in. The woke war is America’s new civil war and is likely to get just as bloody. Major corporations like Disney have been backed into a corner by the woke mob, we have compulsory diversity training just like ever other corporation.

‘Disney has always been about inclusiveness and escapism...thisgoes against everything Walt Disney stood for.’

Disney recently announced it would ban the use of ‘gender greetings’ in its parks – so the terms ‘boys and girls’ are no longer used and guests are greeted with ‘Hello friends’ or ‘Hello everyone’.

Theme park characters such as Mickey Mouse must now call children ‘dreamers’ and ‘friends’.