It’s not just ‘Don’t Say Gay’
Florida also ordered Disney to alter its diversity training
By Scott Maxwell
For decades, Disney and Florida politicians have had a symbiotic relationship — kind of like dung beetles and skunk cabbage.
Much like the beetles pollinate the foul-smelling plants, Disney would fertilize the politicians’ campaign accounts with cash — top it off with free hotel rooms and park passes — and then the politicians would do whatever Disney wanted.
Disney got tax breaks, incentives, taxpayer-funded advertising, even a law guaranteeing companies would never have to offer employees paid sick time if they didn’t want to.
Basically, the two sides were political cronies who swapped favors for cash.
But now the wheels have come off … over culture wars.
You probably know about the fight over “Don’t Say Gay.” (After pressure from its employees, Disney stood up for LGBTQ families. Gov. Ron DeSantis and his team responded with talk of communists, pedophiles and tweets about how Disney should leave Florida … the standard way Team DeSantis handles policy criticism.)
But did you know that before Disney’s support for gay families infuriated Florida Republicans, the company’s employee-diversity initiatives did, too?
Earlier this year, Republican legislators unveiled a new law aimed at stopping Disney from running its diversity and inclusion program in its current form.
It was part of legislators’ whitewash-history agenda. First, they didn’t want school teachers giving history lessons that might cause anyone “discomfort.”
But then they thought: Why stop there? Let’s stop private companies from talking about the realities of racism and sexism in ways we don’t like as well.
So they passed the so-called “Stop WOKE Act” with the House Republican sponsor citing Disney’s program — which he’d heard mentioned “systemic racism” — as one that needed to be outlawed.
In case you read over that last sentence too quickly, let me recap it for you:
A private company was holding private discussions with its own employees. Yet because a politician didn’t like some of the things he’d
heard they were talking about, he wanted to outlaw the speech he found objectionable.
Welcome to The People’s Republic of Florida.
The law’s language says Disney and other Florida companies can’t say anything to make employees “feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress.”
So now we have an interesting standoff.
Disney, after all, is slated to move 2,000 jobs from California (as part of one of those incentive deals mentioned above) to Florida — a state that just accused the company of siding with pedophiles and told Disney it can’t train its employees in the way it wants.
So what will Disney do? Probably roll over and take it. All of it. The political abuse and the tax and incentive favors.
Disney has always valued profits over principles, as evidenced by the fact that the company made campaign donations to every single sponsor of this year’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill while touting its commitment to LGBTQ families.
And though the politicians are beating up on Disney’s (alleged) corporate values, they’re still doing the company legislative favors. Just last year, legislators exempted any company “that owns or operates a theme park” from their crackdown on social media platforms.
So I just assume Disney will happily play the role of culturewar stooge and adjust their employee training to suit the fancies of GOP legislators as long as the financial favors kept coming.
Still, I decided to inquire, sending a note to Disney CEO Bob Chapek and Orlando’s Walt Disney World Resort President Jeff Vahle. Neither responded.
But assuming Disney is still trying to decide how to save face, allow me to offer a suggestion:
Challenge the “Stop WOKE” law in court. The bill will almost certainly be ruled unconstitutional — just like the Legislature’s previous attempts to squelch free speech were. But instead of letting the ACLU or some other civilrights group lead the legal war, Disney should do so itself.
Mickey, Bob and Jeff should do something the company rarely does: Put on their big-boy pants and take a stand.
This isn’t even hard. Every business in Florida should object to this heavy-handed government overreach — politicians trying to stop companies from saying things the politicians dislike.
When House bill sponsor Bryan Avila was railing against Disney for talking to employees about systemic racism — claiming “I think we should all agree should not be taking place in our great nation” — he also railed against other Florida companies like Lockheed Martin.
Avila had heard that Lockheed asked male executives “to deconstruct their white male privilege,” and Avila wanted that to stop.
There was a day when true conservatives who actually believe in free markets, limited government and the U.S. Constitution would be outraged by the idea of government trying to stop a business from having private conversations it believes makes the company run better.
But those days seem long gone. We’re now in the age of snowflakes with people who want to silence ideas, thoughts and history lessons that make them uncomfortable.
People who don’t want to admit that there is still institutional racism in this country.
People who look like me and don’t want to admit they maybe got a leg up in their professional or educational pursuits. Or that they don’t get stopped by police officers as often as people of color.
People who have no interest in hearing uncomfortable truths — and sure don’t want their kids to hear them either.
If Disney wants to talk to its security force about why guests of color might be more skeptical when approached by someone with a badge or a uniform, why should it face legal constraints just because it triggers some snowflake politician?
Disney has a chance to stand up for its own rights — and the U.S. Constitution — by challenging this latest case of government overreach in Florida.
Or it can do nothing. And after it finishes its self-imposed pause on political donations in Florida, it can go right back to cutting checks to the same politicians who have demonized and criticized the company … in exchange for more tax breaks and incentive deals.