DeSantis has launched a challenge to large corporations
Disney Strikes Back by Ending Political Donations
The governor promotes the war once morest the demands of the LGTBQ community
Over the past half century, the corporation Disney has been granted special status in Florida for being good source of employment and one of the reasons for the idyllic image of the state. In return, the entertainment business group has enjoyed important privileges such as the payment of less taxes and that the planes did not even cross their airspace, in order to avoid noise pollution in their parks, among others.
But there are others reasons to understand the bonuses that the corporation receives and these are none other than the generous donations made to the Republican Party, whose political dominance has been imposed over time in almost the entire state. In fact, relations between Disney and the conservatives have been excellent for many years, to the point that a few months ago the business giant was betting on Florida to install a new campus for its headquarters, to the detriment of California, deciding to relocate thousands of workers from one site to another.
But the relationship over the past few months has deteriorated. Disney’s decisions to adapt its products to changes in society, incorporating characters representing various minorities (racial, social and gender) in its main productions, have collided with a more conservative drift of the Republican Party. Especially since the governor Ron DeSantis decided to enact a law to ban the teaching of sexual orientation or gender identity in schools, statewide.
Known among woke activists as “Don’t say gay” (“Don’t say gay”), this legislation says that schools “cannot encourage discussion regarding sexual orientation or gender identity, at the primary levels.” Something that was not well received by Disney workers, who consider that this law goes once morest the rights of the LGTBQ community and the company’s own policy in support of diversity. So, pressured by its staff And in response to the new legislation, the company’s new president, Robert Chapeck, announced an end to political donations in Florida.
Impact
DeSantis’s new reaction was not long in coming: it prompted a series of projects that ended up eliminating Disney’s privileged status, the same ones that until now had allowed it to operate almost as an independent government in its theme parks. The corporation was even forced to postpone until 2026 the opening of the new campus, from where they intended to develop their digital technology, finance and product development departments.
The consequences might not have been more unequal. While DeSantis has emerged victorious in the recent midterm elections in Florida, Chapeck has been fired for poor results political and economic of his management at the helm of Disney.
lessons
The moral of this confrontation, unlike the ones involved in the corporation’s movies, is that The governor has been rewarded by the electorate thanks, among other things, to the attack deployed. In this case, the one carried out on large corporations “like Disney, which are going to criticize parental rights and the fact that we do not want transgender in the classrooms of kindergartens and primary schools,” DeSantis said in Fox News.
The success obtained at the polls by the governor of Florida, following his latest moves, has elevated him as leading Republican Party candidate to the presidential elections of 2024, since he will have to compete with former president Donald Trump, who recently announced his candidacy. Quite a reward with message for big business: if you want to settle in Florida, no experiments with certain claims, especially in relation to gender issues.
Something that Disney seems to have learned by calling his previous CEO Bob Iger, replacing Chapeck, in order to return the magic to the colossus of entertainment with the current circumstances. “In the coming weeks we will begin to implement organizational and operational changes within the company,” Iger said upon arrival. An addition that creates the unknown regarding the future of Disney, in Florida, under the mandate of an increasingly powerful DeSantis.
