Disney has sued Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis (and others) amid the company’s rhetorical standoff with the governor’s team that stems from Disney’s eventually stated opposition to the “Don’t Say Gay” rules infamously signed in 2022.
The law, covering public schools where so many students attend, restricts classroom discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity, and since its original implementation, state officials have orchestrated an expansion covering all grades before college. Although every individual falls somewhere in the categories of sexual orientation and gender identity, the idea is, of course, specifically targeting those with LGBTQ+ identities. Now, Disney is explicitly alleging retaliation in actions taken in DeSantis’s corner. An oversight board with control tracing back to the governor was established, and its members have undone — or at least made a show of undoing, pending however these court battles conclude — agreements approved under previous governance regimes for Disney that prioritized the company’s control in theme park expansions.
“A targeted campaign of government retaliation—orchestrated at every step by Governor DeSantis as punishment for Disney’s protected speech—now threatens Disney’s business operations, jeopardizes its economic future in the region, and violates its constitutional rights,” the company’s lawsuit said. The specific spark for the lawsuit, as noted in the filing itself, was the DeSantis-backed board’s moves to undo those development arrangements, which as explained in The New York Times provided Disney with a substantial level of control over its own development ambitions and even the usage of surrounding land. “One of the agreements gives Disney the ability to build 14,000 additional hotel rooms, a fifth theme park and three smaller parks,” the Times said. “The other restricts the use of abutting land; no strip clubs, for instance.”
Disney had previously enjoyed a level of control over its own properties, pushing out government middlemen from the rhetorical equation. The new lawsuit from Disney also cites recent threats from DeSantis of further action, like tolls on roadways around the company’s theme park in the Orlando area and even the possible construction of a state prison near the company’s location in the state’s central regions. While it wasn’t immediately clear how serious DeSantis was about the threat of a prison, it exemplifies the situation. DeSantis is quite literally threatening the basic economic fabric of his state, and for what? Because the company issued statements supporting LGBTQ+ rights? Isn’t it the Republicans who so like the idea of extending speech allowances under the law to corporate entities, helping facilitate the explosion in third-party spending seen after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United?
