The Walt Disney Company "crossed a line" by announcing its intent to repeal the Parental Rights in Education law, Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday, Newsweek reported.
"For Disney to come out and put a statement and say that the bill should have never passed and that they are going to actively work to repeal it, I think one was fundamentally dishonest, but two, I think that crossed the line," DeSantis told reporters in a press conference in Tallahassee.
The law, which passed Monday, prohibits instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, which critics say marginalizes LGBTQ+ people.
Disney wrote in a statement Monday the bill "should never have passed and should never have been signed into law," according to CNBC. "Our goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that."
DeSantis slammed Disney's claim Tuesday, saying it went against what the company stands for, Newsweek reported.
"For them to say they're going to actively work to repeal substantive protections for parents, as a company that is supposedly marketing its services to parents with young children, I think they crossed the line," the governor said. "This state is governed by the interest of the people of the state of Florida. It is not based on the demands of California corporate executives. They do not run this state; they do not control this state."
DeSantis also referred to the criticism Disney faced for its 2020 movie "Mulan," which was filmed in Xinjiang, a Chinese region where Uyghur Muslims suffer from oppression and other serious human rights abuses.
"If we would have put in the bill that you are not allowed to have curriculum that discussed the oppression of the Uyghurs in China, Disney would have endorsed that in a second," DeSantis said. "And that's the hypocrisy of this, and we're gonna make sure we're fighting back when people are threatening our parents and threatening our kids."
Disney had at first remained silent on the bill, but issued an apology to LGBTQ+ employees after backlash to that stance and announced earlier this month that it was stopping donations to all politicians in Florida.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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