Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has signed Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill into law, banning schools from using classroom instruction to sexualize young children. But even as the Left — including the social masters at Disney — continue to demonize the law, DeSantis is not backing down.
On Monday, DeSantis said the right of parents to choose the education, moral upbringing, and healthcare of their children is “fundamental,” adding that the “sloganeering and fake narratives by leftist politicians, by activists, [and] by corporate media” is because “they don’t want to admit that they support a lot of the things we are providing protections against.” “For example,” DeSantis said, “they support sexualizing kids in kindergarten.” He went on to say:
They support injecting woke gender ideology into second grade classrooms. They support enabling schools to “transition students” to a “different gender” without the knowledge of the parent much less without the parents consent. What they are doing with these slogans and these narratives, they are trying to camoflauge their true intentions.
The law — which the Left fraudulently refers to as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill (as a group of dishonest Hollywood celebrities did at the Oscars) — never uses the word “gay” at all. It simply prohibits “classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity” for “kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
That Hollywood in general (and Disney specifically) would object to that suggests that DeSantis is correct that “they are trying to camoflauge their true intentions” to sexualize kids in kindergarten.
While some critics have not read the bill and are merely regurgitating talking points given by others, DeSantis said that “leftist politicians, corporate media outlets, some of these activist groups” are different, because “they actually have read the bill” and are deliberately dishonest about what is in it, because they “are opposed to providing protections for parents and enforcing parents rights.”
DeSantis said that Hollywood types “who held up degenerates like Harvey Weinstein as exemplars,” adding, “if those are the types of people opposing us on parents rights, I wear that like a badge of honor.”
Of all the Leftist Hollywood types who have been guilty of “sloganeering and fake narratives,” Disney — which has a strong business base in Florida — may take the prize. On Tuesday, DeSantis took Disney out behind the woodshed, saying that Disney and “California corporate executives” have “crossed the line” by coming out with dishonest tactics against the bill.
DeSantis was responding mostly to a tweet by Disney calling for the Florida legislature to repeal the law or for the courts to strike it down. In the tweet, Disney again dishonestly referred to the bill as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
As Politico reports:
[Disney CEO Bob] Chapek, who had remained silent on the bill in the weeks leading up to [the bill’s] passage, had come under heavy criticism from Disney employees and others in the entertainment industry for not taking a stand against the bill. Chapek publicly condemned the measure, but only after the GOP-led Florida Legislature approved it in early March.
The California-based entertainment giant, which has more than 70,000 employees in Florida and a flagship amusement park in Orlando, later escalated the conflict when it announced that it would halt all donations to political campaigns in Florida over the “Parental Rights in Education bill.”
Florida State Representative Joe Harding, a Republican lawmaker who sponsored the bill, said, “I’m disappointed to see Disney speak out against this legislation, which is now Florida law,” adding, “As a company whose primary audiences are young children and families, Disney has let us down through their complicity with the false narratives pushed by liberal media.”
DeSantis — who has indicated he will run for president in 2024 — is undeterred. He has said all along he will not back down on protecting children and affirming parental rights.
