Posted on 03/23/2023 8:41:47 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Is the House of Mouse in a full-on war with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis? If not, the organization is at the very least jabbing a finger in the governor’s eye. The Walt Disney Company will host a major summit to promote LGBTQ rights in the workplace. It will be held in Central Florida in September. Executives and professionals from the world’s largest companies will gather “in a defiant display of the limits of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign against diversity training.”
The relationship between Disney and DeSantis has been tense for more than a year. Disney went super-woke and that included weighing in with political opinions. DeSantis signed a law into effect that ended autonomy at the Disney resort. Disney claimed it was punishment for its opposition to Florida’s Parental Rights in Education legislation. It was widely known as the “Don’t Say Gay Bill,” thanks to the media and Democrats working together to describe it as such, though the word ‘gay’ does not appear in the bill. It stops discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in classrooms for students in lower grades than fourth grade. Children as young as kindergarteners are being protected from educators with aggressive political agendas. Gender politics has no place in the classroom with young children.
Out & Equal is the organization behind the event with Disney. Disney has an established relationship with Out & Equal. They will also host the same summit next year – two years in a row at Disney World in Florida. Last year it was held in Las Vegas. Next year’s summit will coincide with the presidential election campaign in 2024. That isn’t a coincidence as DeSantis is expected to challenge Trump for the Republican nomination. Progressives really, really don’t want Joe Biden to run against Ron DeSantis. They want to have another Biden versus Trump election.
Dozens of iconic American companies — including Apple, McDonald’s, Uber, Walmart, Hilton, Amazon, Boeing, Cracker Barrel and John Deere — are sponsoring the Out & Equal Workplace Summit, which over 5,000 people are expected to attend. Several agencies, including the State Department and the CIA, are listed as government partners and will have booths at the conference.
The conference comes after DeSantis declared victory over Disney in February when he signed a law that gave him the power to appoint a five-member board overseeing government services at the Disney district near Orlando.
The subsequent legislation left most of Disney’s special powers in place despite the governor’s attempt to dissolve the district. The conservative members the governor appointed to the board hinted at the first meeting of the new board that they would exercise leverage over Disney, such as prohibiting COVID-19 restrictions at Disney World. But legal experts have said that the new board’s authority has no control over Disney content.
Hosting the conference is another demonstration of the limits on the Republican governor’s ability to influence the content and scope of events at Disney.
So, yes, it’s a jab in the eye of the governor.
Going woke for companies, like when Disney decided to get politically active, has consequences. Disney revenues dropped during the company’s kerfuffle with DeSantis. Families canceled memberships. Now there are reports of major layoffs coming, and the word “bloodbath” is being used. Yikes! Cuts are coming to all divisions , including the theme parks. Stock prices still have not risen much despite the streamlining coming.
With Disney’s April 3 shareholder meeting — a virtual affair this year — less than two weeks away, some clarity is emerging about the company’s plans to reduce staff and cut costs.
Insiders tell Deadline that multiple rounds of cuts are being prepared. The first one is being targeted for late March, likely next week, we hear. (March 30 or March 31 have been floated as possible dates, but that has not been confirmed.) According to sources, there will be a big wave in late April, described as “the big one” or a “bloodbath,” when a large portion of the cuts is expected to come.
The cuts are expected to be spread across the company’s three divisions — Entertainment; ESPN; and Parks, Experiences and Products — with marketing and distribution including at the disbanded Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution unit among the business areas ripe for consolidation. Virtually every part of the sprawling Entertainment division is expected to be impacted in a meaningful way. There have been rumors about potential significant cuts at Hulu as well as sister studios ABC Signature and 20th Television both on the business and content side. Despite rampant speculation about the two major TV studios potentially merging operations in some form, that still does not appear to be imminent.
Investors initially cheered Iger’s revelation about streamlining, boosting shares, but the stock has fallen back in recent weeks. It closed Tuesday at $96.54 and has risen about 2% in 2023 to date. Even so, shares now are not much higher than where they crash-landed in March 2020. That was just after Iger passed the CEO baton to Bob Chapek and Covid was beginning to lay siege to almost all of Disney’s operations.
DeSantis didn’t go after the LGBTQ community specifically in a discriminatory way. What he did do was work with the Florida Legislature to put in place legislation that protects school children from an age-inappropriate LGBTQ agenda. Parents responded favorably to that assistance. Progressives and politically active companies decided to misrepresent the legislation and use that as an excuse for their activism when they began to get pushback.
It’s doubtful that the Summit will have any effect on the governor or his primary campaign. Disney and its sponsor can make a big deal of themselves but it won’t change anything. Voters re-elected DeSantis in a landslide. DeSantis turned Florida into a ruby-red state. The legislation is law. DeSantis will run for the Republican nomination. Nothing changes, except Disney may lose some more business. That’s on them, not the governor.
Incestuous and Animals (Bestiality), as “B” is already taken. That’s what I thought anyway.
Intersex and Asexual
Disney sure showed Ron DeSantis.
He gutted their special status, it will cost them billions,
and they went with this to show him.
Wait until what he has done starts taking effect.
“ pretty soon disney won’t be anything more than a starving retreat for homosexuals”
From my perspective it already is as my family no longer has any plan to buy any Disney related products be it the Disney Channel, movies, merchandise, and theme parks or anything that might in any way contribute to their wacko woke homosexual perverse company. If enough of us who claim to be Christian or from other religions that teach that acceptance of perverse sexual lifestyles is a sin just as partaking in such activity is a sin would not support them by continuing to buy their products we could actually put an end to this madness.
I was thinking about buying a John Deere lawn tractor. Now I’m not!
Arrest the pedos.
Disney failed to protect its brand’s image and reputation. It now represents pedos and sexual deviants. But, hey, come on in kids.
It now promotes and defends values which destroy families.
I predict in 50 years WDW will be sold for condo development.
Silent trump on these drag queens shows for kids. We know he is pro homo… so I guess that’s why he is silent.
lets see how he handles this now that he has went public with his 2024 ambitions...
Is great the roaches are staying still after the light has been turned on
Keep destroying disney and oppose these evil alphabet people.
You would be correct. I went to USAFA and I don’t recognize the place anymore. I wouldn’t advise my own kids and family to go into the military let alone a service Academy today!
Disney is a private company. If they want to sponsor this nonsense on their property then the government (neither fed or State) has no power to stop them. And rightfully so.
Still, all DeSantis did was keep discussion of sexual matters away from 5-9 years old children. I don’t know why the MSM is considering this some kind of victory. This has nothing to do with the law that was enacted and I doubt that DeSantis would have an issue with this as no children appear to be involved.
Disney stock was $187 two years ago. It’s $95 now.
Correct. Not to mention the stockholders who’s investment has gone down the chute.
I’ve lived in Florida since 1985 and have seen the quality of life here deteriorate significantly. In 1990-91 I worked in Orlando which at the time was a beautiful city.
A few short years ago I had occasion to drive out there on an I-4 that looked like I was in Beirut. Complete infrastructure breakdown.
When I got there after killing the suspension on my vehicle, everyone I met spoke little to no English and the place looked like a bomb had hit it.
In Tampa illegals are arriving almost daily and there are traffic jams at 11 o’clock in the morning going on all day long. Grid lock where you wait for three-four light changes to get through any intersection.
Drivers violating basic rules of the road with impudence, and no law enforcement presence to stop it. Tailgating and speeding and drivers even of company vehicles with total lack of impulse control.
I’m talking driving the wrong way on streets, parking the wrong way in subdivisions, blowing through intersections against a red light, trying to run down pedestrians caught in a crosswalk, out of control motorcycles everywhere and vehicles rigged to make the most horrendous ear-splitting racket when the driver changes gears.
The big myth is Florida is being well-governed but we don’t see this where we live. Bags of litter dumped deliberately near private home subdivisions, but never near apartment complexes. Subsequent drivers then burst the bags, spewing kitchen and bathroom trash all across the street.
Need to make an appointment to see a dentist or a doctor? You are told there is an eight- to ten-week wait. Homeowners associations are silent in the face of trespass and encroachment issues becoming common between home owners, as deed restrictions are no longer enforced. There is no respect for private property.
County code enforcement agencies reply with hostility to any requests for assistance with violations. County Commission members ignore emails from constituents. The idea that Florida has in some way a great governor is a very strange concept.
The sheriff and the local prosecuting attorneys and judges have declared hands-off the criminal element with the exception of charges of rape or shooting deaths. And even then, the reporting in the local media is brief and with constant protection given to the perpetrators by withholding identification of any sort unless they happen to be white males.
In Hillsborough County it’s no longer a criminal offense to drive either without insurance or without a drivers license. When you go to the local tax office regarding your license the first thing they want to know is if you are registered to vote. The computer prompts them. Unbelievable. Yet ninety percent of the people waiting there for service are Hispanic or Caribbean.
If you hire anyone to do house cleaning or installing a new roof, no one speaks English and you will need a Spanish interpreter to communicate with the workers assigned to the job.
Florida has become a lawless hellhole receptacle for third world low-IQ trash. The ones their native countries do not want.
Ask me why I’m stupid enough to continue to live here. Because I don’t believe there’s anyplace else to go.
Ron DeSantis for President? Are you kidding me?
5000 attendees?
That would be a poorly attended Texas high school football game.
EC
Boy, that Anakin is a real asshole.
But...... It might be all the queers and dykes in Florida
...and the sideshow comes full circle. DeSantis is a eGOP fraud.
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