Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday slammed "woke" Disney CEO Bob Chapek over his criticism of a parental rights bill that progressives claim is anti-LGBTQ.
"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," DeSantis told Fox News.
"You have companies, like at 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 in first-grade classrooms," he continued.
"If that's the hill 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 policies got to be based on the best interest of Florida citizens, not on the musing of woke corporations," he added.
The Parental Rights in Education bill, which bans school employees or third parties from giving classroom instruction on "sexual orientation" or "gender identity" in kindergarten through third grade, passed the state Senate Tuesday after passing the House last month.
Chapek told investors Wednesday that he had spoken to DeSantis and expressed "our disappointment and concern that if the legislation becomes law, it could be used to unfairly target gay, lesbian, nonbinary and transgender kids and families."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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