A group of state Senators have sponsored a new piece of legislation that would create an official state government commission for looking into the prospect of welcoming family theme parks to North Carolina. The bill is called the “Mickey’s Freedom Restoration Act,” indicating an intention of specifically targeting Disney amid that entertainment giant’s continuing feud with Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis.
Florida, of course, is where one of the U.S. theme parks that Disney operates is located, but recently, DeSantis and allies of his have repeatedly lambasted Disney, no matter the economic growth it helps bring to the state. Recently, DeSantis even suggested constructing a new state prison what would evidently be near Disney’s Orlando-area attractions, and while it’s of course unclear that would ever actually happen, such is the general gist of what’s been transpiring, most of which originates with Disney opposing the “Don’t Say Gay” initiative. Referred to as such by its opponents, that state framework, which was initially passed in the legislature and was more recently approved for expansion by the state Board of Education, restricts classroom discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in what is now all grades before college.
Among the concerns is that the broad nature of the restrictions could lead to intimidation and targeting around what are even just basic references to the realities of LGBTQ+ identities. Also recently approved by state legislators in Florida was a rule to restrict sex education to exclude transgender people, sticking to sex assigned at birth as the basis for discussion. DeSantis has also been approving other controversial restrictions, like the new ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, and if he makes the state less attractive for both travel and relocation, that’s not going to be very uplifting for the local business environment, is it?
The new bill that was filed in North Carolina contains an array of specifications for who would be selecting the members of the prospective commission, whose selections would originate with both legislative and executive leaders. Their mission would include “Studying and consulting major family parks outside of the State to determine (i) the amount of interest among family parks to expand into the State, (ii) the priorities of family parks when considering an expansion into a new state, and (iii) any other information relevant to developing a plan that recruits family parks and encourages them to expand into the State,” per the legislation’s text.
