Following almost adversarial comments from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis related to the company’s denouncement of the Parental Rights in Education bill, colloquially called “Don’t Say Gay”, the Florida Legislature has passed a second bill, entitled the “Stop WOKE Act”, targeting Disney and other companies’ diversity training programs.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, House Republican sponsor of the bill Bryan Avila specifically cited Disney’s “Reimagine Tomorrow” program as one target of the bill. Disney’s program in supporting the bill, saying he’d heard the program was educating about “systemic racism”. The act is designed to limit what companies and educators can say regarding racial issues, particularly Critical Race Theory. In particular, it bans any school or corporation from teaching that “an individual’s moral character or status as either privileged or oppressed is necessarily determined by his or her race, color, sex, or national origin.”
Disney bills Reimagine Tomorrow as “our way of amplifying underrepresented voices and untold stories as well as championing the importance of accurate representation in media and entertainment. Because we are all greater than a single story and we all deserve to feel seen, heard and understood.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said when the bill was proposed in December “In Florida we are taking a stand against the state-sanctioned racism that is critical race theory…we must protect Florida workers against the hostile work environment that is created when large corporations force their employees to endure CRT-inspired ‘training’ and indoctrination”, per CBS News.
Critics have argued that the bill is unconstitutional and a “blatant violation of the First Amendment”. This bill comes mere days after the highly controversial bill dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by critics passed the Florida Legislature. Disney CEO Bob Chapek famously bungled his response and eventual denunciation of the act, and Disney Imagineers have used the outrage to further their case for reversing the company’s move of over 2000 employees to a new campus in Lake Nona, Florida.
*story by wdwnt.net
