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The Walt Disney Company has unwittingly planted itself smack-dab in the middle of a culture war, thanks to CEO Bob Chapek’s bumbling response to the Florida Parental Rights in Education bill, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by critics.

LGBTQ+ staff at Disney continue to revolt and have started a campaign of walkouts, while Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who has taken tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Disney, has begun slamming the company from the other side.

DeSantis was filmed recently speaking to constituents when he singled out Disney for attempting to interfere with how he believes parents want to raise their children.

He went on to further accuse Disney of hypocrisy, arguing that the company only takes a stance when politically convenient and has remained silent on the “brutal practices” of the Chinese government to protect its business interests in that country.

Here is transcript of DeSantis’s comments followed by the video clip:

The chance that I am going to back down from my commitment to students and back down from my commitment to parents’ rights simply because of fraudulent media narratives or pressure from woke corporations, the chances of that are zero. And when you have companies that have made a fortune off being family friendly and catering to families and young kids, they should understand that parents of young kids do not want this injected into their kid’s kindergarten classroom. They do not want their first graders to go and being told that they can choose an opposite gender. That is not appropriate for those kids. So, if you’re family friendly, understand, the parents who are actually raising families want to have their rights respected.

And I also think that you have companies, like a Disney, that are going to say and criticize parents’ rights. They’re going to criticize the fact that we don’t want transgenderism in kindergarten and first grade classrooms – if that’s the hill that they’re going to die on, then how do they possibly explain lining their pockets with their relationship from the Communist Party of China? Because that’s what they do and they make a fortune, and they don’t say a word about the really brutal practices that you see over there at the hands of the CCP. And so, in Florida, our policy’s going to be based on the best interests of Florida citizens, not on the musing of woke corporations.

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Amid Amidi

Amid Amidi is Cartoon Brew's Editor in Chief.

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