Last month, as part of his ongoing war against the largest employer in central Florida, governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis said at a town hall, of Disney: “We’ve put this company on a pedestal…in the past it has been like the all-American company. But they’ve really embraced the idea of getting the sexualized content in the programming for the young kids. And that is just a line that I am not willing to cross.” That was obviously a wild, baseless claim to make and, unsurprisingly, the CEO of Walt Disney Co. wasn’t thrilled about it—to say the least.
Speaking to CNBC from Sun Valley, Idaho, on Wednesday, Bob Iger told David Faber, “The notion that Disney is in any way sexualizing our children, quite frankly, is preposterous and inaccurate.”
DeSantis’s comments, and Iger’s response, come as the Florida governor’s feud with the company* approaches the 18th-month mark. As a reminder, that feud began when DeSantis, with the support of Florida’s GOP-controlled legislature, stripped Disney of its special self-governing status last year, in what was seen as as retribution for the company’s decision to speak out against the wildly bigoted “Don’t Say Gay” law. Disney had said the law “could be used to unfairly target gay, lesbian, nonbinary and transgender kids and families.” (Indeed, it has.) This past April, Iger called DeSantis “anti-business” and “anti-Florida.” Later, DeSantis publicly mused about building a prison complex next to the park and raising its taxes. Not long after, the company sued the governor and accused him of waging a “targeted campaign of government retaliation,” adding: “Disney regrets that it has come to this. But having exhausted efforts to seek a resolution, the Company is left with no choice but to file this lawsuit to protect its cast members, guests, and local development partners from a relentless campaign to weaponize government power against Disney in retaliation for expressing a political viewpoint unpopular with certain State officials.”
DeSantis’s fight against Disney is, of course, part of his larger right-wing culture war that he apparently believes will catapult him to the White House. That war has included signing not just the “Don’t Say Gay” law but other anti-LGBTQ+ laws, like one that criminalizes using a bathroom that does not correspond to one’s assigned sex at birth (the crime would be trespassing) and another that prohibits doctors from offering gender-affirming care to minors, even if they have their parents’ permission. (The law out of the “free state of Florida” also gives Florida courts the power to interfere when minors go out of state for treatment.)
*Here we are morally obligated to remind people of the incredible fact that Ron DeSantis and his wife, Casey DeSantis, got married at Disney World. As he wrote in his memoir: “Casey’s family was what one might call a family of Disney enthusiasts. They loved going to Disney World. Being the dutiful groom, I deferred to her.” DeSantis, though, had one requirement: “My only condition was that no Disney characters could be part of our wedding. I wanted our special day to look and feel like a traditional wedding. I didn’t want Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck in our wedding photos.”)
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