It is a historic disappointment experienced by the management of one of the largest amusement parks in the world.

The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, signed Friday, April 22 a text rendering null and void the favorable status which the Disney World amusement park had enjoyed for several decades.

The bone of contention: the group's challenge to a law promoted by the governor and passed by the state's elected Republicans, deemed liberticidal and homophobic by its detractors.

Ron DeSantis' relations with Disney had recently deteriorated, despite the weight of the entertainment giant in the economy, in particular tourism, of this State.

The conservative governor was no longer angry with Bob Chapek, CEO of Disney, who spoke out publicly against a law – which DeSantis initiated – banning teaching subjects related to sexual orientation or identity gender in primary school.

To this law, its opponents have found a clear nickname: "Don't say gay" ("Don't talk about gays").

Florida's two houses of parliament, both with a Republican majority, voted to strip Disney of its privileged status: the Senate on Wednesday by 23 votes to 16, followed by the House of Representatives on Thursday by 70 votes against 38.

Disney and Florida: the end of 55 years of idyll 

The special status in the crosshairs of the text was granted to Disney at the time of the construction of the Disney World leisure park in the 1960s. It offers the entertainment giant a large autonomy of local management and exempts it from most of the state regulations.

This amusement park near Orlando is one of the most visited in the world, and the Disney brand remains a favorite with Americans.

But, mired in this controversy, the giant is seeing an accumulation of criticism which it would have done well, while the stock market title lost 2.4% after the vote, ending at the lowest in months.

The controversy surrounding Ron DeSantis' law on LGBT+ issues in schools has proven to be a headache for Disney, after an internal memo leaked showing Bob Chapek was reluctant to take a stand on the law. 

Employees of the group then demonstrated in March against the “apathy” of the group.

Calls for a boycott began circulating on social media, eventually leading the CEO to come out against the law.   

Relations were much less tense in the past between Ron DeSantis and Disney, which employs more than 75,000 people at Disney World, and had contributed financially to the Republican candidate's campaign for his election in 2019. However, the break seems today. now well consumed: the giant has suspended its electoral funding.

Under fire after flooding supporters of the Don't Say Gay law with money, Disney has admitted the law is bad for LGBT+ people.

The company is now under threat from elected conservatives and anti-LGBT+ groups in Florida.https://t.co/y1EzV5Rvzl

— The LGBT+ corner (@lecoindeslgbt) April 16, 2022

A controversial law

Signed on March 22, the controversial text "on parental rights in education", adopted at the end of March, stipulates in particular that no instruction "concerning sexual orientation or gender identity should be given until the third year of primary school. 

But teachers at this level already do not include gender identity or sexuality in their curriculum in any way, according to critics of this law.

For them, if this legislation intends to bring transparency between schools and parents, it "ultimately creates problems, where there were none".

Another provision allows any educator to keep parents informed "about the mental, emotional or physical health or well-being" of the student;

and requires schools to notify a parent of any "change in the services offered to the pupil and its follow-up, related to his mental, emotional or physical health".

Will this provision encourage schools to reveal their child's sexual orientation to parents, as feared by LGBT+ activists?

For the Florida daily, Miami Herald, "this may be the real purpose of the law": "to make it so vague that even before it comes into force [July 1], it has an intimidating effect on teachers and schools, who would rather be overly cautious than risk complaints from parents."

A national issue 

The task of enforcing this law has in fact been entrusted to parents, who can file a complaint against a school district and obtain damages.

The device therefore institutes “bounty hunters”, which is reminiscent of the ultra-restrictive abortion law in force in Texas since September 2021, notes the Texas Tribune.

This law promoted by Ron DeSantis, a convinced Trumpist, who does not hide his views on the White House, is part of a conservative wind, which is sweeping the United States well beyond Florida alone: ​​bills are to be the study in six other states to ban or restrict the evocation of LGBT+ issues in schools, or educational materials on the subject, affirms, among others, the LGBTQI magazine The Advocate.

Republican lawmakers are behind a "historic wave of bills targeting the rights of LGBTQI teens, children and their families" across the United States," The Washington Post points out:

"Across the country, Republican lawmakers in state legislatures introduced nearly 200 bills this year aimed at undermining protections for transgender and gay youth, or limiting the ability to discuss LGBTQI issues. in public establishments.

Unsurprisingly in light of this context, Republicans castigate the entertainment giant.

“I believe that [Disney] has exceeded the limits, commented on Tuesday April 19 Ron DeSantis in a press conference. This state is governed by the interests of the citizens of Florida and not by the demands of the leaders of Californian companies.

"Disney isn't saying a word about dictatorship in China because it would cost it billions of dollars. But it has no problem using its corporate power to lie about laws democratically passed by lawmakers in China. Florida,” Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican tenor, said this week.

Randy Fine, a Republican elected promoter of the private member's initiative to reduce the exemption status of Disney World, he told him that Disney was only a "guest" in Florida.

The very recently assumed homosexuality of Disney heroes

Torchbearer of America's soft power in the post-war period, the Walt Disney Company has also been fairly often criticized for its conservatism.

Despite some recent progressive positions, the representation of homosexuality in Disney films has long been one of the prohibitions, recalls an editorial director in charge of Disney, Pixar and Simpson characters: this has often been done under the coat without being assumed, through effeminate or mannered characters, without that being able to be confirmed, explains another artist of the group.

In the Disney family, the first “coming out” of a homosexual hero on screen only dates back to 2020, in the short film “Out”.

More and more Americans say they belong to a sexual minority.

They are twice as many as in 2012, according to a vast survey published Thursday, February 17.

Since these numbers are first borne by Generation Z [those born between 1997 and 2010], according to study leader Jeff Jones, it won't be long before the statistics for LGBTQI identification shift to double digits in the US population.

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