When news came out last month that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was supporting a new bill that bans classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity for kindergarteners through grade 3 “or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students,” many attacked The Walt Disney Company for not making an immediate, public stance.
Initially, Disney CEO Bob Chapek said they were trying to work with Florida lawmakers behind the scenes. According to the Tampa Bay Times, since January, Disney tried to convince lawmakers “that a bill restricting LGBTQ school lessons was not good policy.” However, the public did not know this and started attacking the company.
The article went on to say Disney lobbyists had a series of calls with Senate Education Committee Chairman Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota before the bill received a hearing. Gruters, who is the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida said Disney told him they “didn’t think it was the right policy for Florida” and that “a lot of employees… expressed frustration [with the bill] and “didn’t want [it].”
When those efforts failed, Disney tried to work with Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg to “fix the most contentious portion of the bill.” Brandes wanted to change the bill from saying school lessons could not teach “gender identity or sexual orientation in kindergarten through third grade” to “human sexuality or sexual activity.” The amendment failed.
Disney then turned to the only openly gay lawmaker, Senate Education Committee vice-chairperson Shevrin Jones (D). “Disney was very active in pushing the amendment,” Jones told the Tampa Bay Times. “They were providing me with suggestions and working with me.”
Jones’s amendment said classroom instruction “intended to change a student’s sexual orientation or gender identity” should not occur in any grades. It too was struck down a day before the bill was passed by the Senate along party lines.
Disney Finally Speaks Out
In March, Chapek sent a company-wide email out addressing the bill in hopes of clarifying The Walt Disney Company’s position.
“… I want to address concerns about our political contributions in Florida. While we have not given money to any politician based on this issue, we have contributed to both Republican and Democrat legislators who have subsequently taken positions on both sides of the legislation,” said Chapek. “I can also share that Geoff Morrell, our new Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, will be reassessing our advocacy strategies around the world -including political giving -as he begins to integrate the communications, public policy, government relations and SR teams.”
For many this statement did not go anywhere near far enough and the opposition got louder and more intense. Four days later, Chapek sent out another company-wide email saying, “You needed me to be a stronger ally in the fight for equal rights and I let you down. I am sorry.”
He informed Cast Members that the company would be pausing donations to all Florida politicians and would be increasing their support for advocacy groups to combat similar legislation in other states. Prior to this, Disney made a $5 million donation to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and other LGBTQ+ causes. However, the HRC turned down the money until Disney did “better.”
At the end of March, Disney came out with their strongest statement to date – which some say should have been their initial response – saying on Twitter that the bill “should never have passed and should never have been signed into law.” They went on to say that they will be working to repeal this law or have it “struck down in the courts”, as well as work to oppose similar legislation in other states.
Immediately, DeSantis shot back and said the company “crossed the line.”
“This state is governed by the interest of the people of the state of Florida. It is not based on the demands of California corporate executives,” DeSantis said. “They do not run this state. They do not control this state.”
Democratic leaders wanted DeSantis to take away Disney’s tax breaks, however he rejected that suggestion. He said the Florida legislature “can certainly reevaluate [its corporate tax policies] as a whole,” but would prefer to “treat everybody equally” and not “let one company have their own set of rules compared to everybody else.”
Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID) Controversy
Florida House Representative Spencer Roach (R) tweeted that the Florida legislature has already discussed – two times so far – repealing the 1967 Reedy Creek Improvement Act (RCID), which allows Disney to act as its own government. He said, “If Disney wants to embrace woke ideology, it seems fitting that they should be regulated by Orange County.”
He went on to say, the RCID is “the largest tax evasion scam in Florida history, if not U.S. history — and we’ve had our share of scams in Florida. The fundamental question should be: Do we believe in free markets or not?”
DeSantis then joined the conversation, insuinating he just learned about this 55 year old law. “Someone said Disney has all these special perks,” DeSantis said. “Should you retaliate against them for them coming out and demagoguing this bill? I don’t believe you ‘retaliate,’ but I think what I would say is, as a matter of first principle, I don’t support special privileges in law just because a company is powerful, and they’ve been able to wield a lot of power.”
He went on to say, with shock and surprise, that Disney even has the ability to build its own nuclear power plant. “They could do their own nuclear power plant. Is there any other private company in the state that can just build a nuclear power plant on their own?” said Gov. DeSantis. Even though Disney has the capability, they have never had a desire to build a nuclear power plant, in fact they are building massive solar energy fields.
The Reedy Creek Improvement District is a big deal for Disney. It acts as a government district and controls approximately 25,000 acres. It is responsible for paying the cost of municipal services, including power, fire protection, water, waste management and roads.
“Day-to-day operations are conducted separately from Disney, but the company, as Reedy Creek’s largest landowner, effectively controls the district’s Board of Supervisors,” reports NBC News. “The establishment of Reedy Creek frees Disney from asking a local planning commission for approval to build new structures or pay governmental impact fees when it builds new structures. But most important is Reedy Creek’s ability to collect taxes and issue bonds. For the current fiscal year, the district has a budget of more than $169 million — more than 90 percent of which comes from the collection of property taxes on Disney’s real estate. That means it can avoid the headaches of local government that often come with asking residents to pay taxes to fund infrastructure.”
According to Orlando-based attorney Tom Wilkes, who has worked on matters involving Reedy Creek, “It’s allowed them [Disney] to create the typical municipal-type services at a level Disney wanted for its properties. For instance, the roads are generally a notch or two higher than outside the district.”
NBC News reports, “It is not clear what the ultimate impact on Disney’s bottom line would be if Reedy Creek were to be dissolved, Wilkes said. If anything, it could end up costing area taxpayers more if local governments had to begin servicing Disney parks, he said, noting that Disney pays property taxes to Orange and Osceola counties.”
“Disney pays its way when it comes to government services,” Wilkes said. “It pays the two counties, and two county school boards — and gets very little services in return. It doesn’t get any exemptions there.”
Copyrights and Disney
Republicans are going after Disney from another direction – their copyright of Mickey Mouse, specifically Steamboat Willie. Close to two dozen lawmakers on the Republican Study Commission (RSC) sent a letter Thursday to Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Chapek, stating that because of Disney’s ties to China and the company’s “political and sexual agenda” they are opposed to renewing the company’s copyright on Mickey Mouse, which is set to expire in 2024.
Nearly two dozen lawmakers on the Republican Study Commission (RSC) sent a letter Thursday to Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Chapek, declaring their opposition to renewing the company’s copyright on Mickey Mouse, which is set to expire in 2024. RSC Chair Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana spearheaded the letter.
“Our Constitution explicitly states copyrights were not intended to last forever, yet Disney’s relentless lobbying indicates they intend to subvert this clause. If Disney wants to attack American values and young families, Congress should not reward them,” Banks said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Newsweek reports, this past Friday, “Breitbart published a letter that Indiana Representative Jim Banks, a Republican, sent to Disney CEO Bob Chapek. In it, Banks condemned Disney for publicly opposing Florida’s education bill, claiming the company had ‘capitulated to far-left activists through hypocritical, woke corporate actions.’ He also said that ‘[g]iven Disney’s continued work with a Communist Chinese regime…I will not support further extensions applicable to your copyrights, which should become public domain.'”
The act that Banks and other Republicans are referring to is known as The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act – also known as the Copyright Term Extension Act, Sonny Bono Act, or the Mickey Mouse Protection Act.
According to Wikipedia:
Following the Copyright Act of 1976, copyright would last for the life of the author plus 50 years, or 75 years for a work of corporate authorship. The 1976 Act also increased the extension term for works copyrighted before 1978 that had not already entered the public domain from 28 years to 47 years, giving a total term of 75 years.
The 1998 Act extended these terms to life of the author plus 70 years and for works of corporate authorship to 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication, whichever end is earlier. Copyright protection for works published before January 1, 1978, was increased by 20 years to a total of 95 years from their publication date.
This law effectively “froze” the advancement date of the public domain in the United States for works covered by the older fixed term copyright rules. Under this Act, works made in 1923 or afterwards that were still protected by copyright in 1998 would not enter the public domain until January 1, 2019 or later. Mickey Mouse specifically, having first appeared in 1928, will enter the public domain in 2024 or afterward (depending on the date of the product). Unlike copyright extension legislation in the European Union, the Sonny Bono Act did not revive copyrights that had already expired. The Act did extend the terms of protection set for works that were already copyrighted, and is retroactive in that sense.
However, works created before January 1, 1978, but not published or registered for copyright until recently, are addressed in a special section (17 U.S.C. § 303) and may remain protected until the end of 2047. The Act became Pub.L. 105–298 (text) (PDF) on October 27, 1998.
House Republicans Condemn Disney
This past week, 12 House Republicans have decided to join the right’s outcry against Disney. In a three-page letter to Chapek, Republicans said they are writing to “express our concerns regarding your comments that stand in opposition to parental rights.”
Republicans said, “To be clear, The Walt Disney Company never expressed displeasure with this legislative proposal while the Florida legislature was reviewing the bill.” Based on the Tampa Bay Times reporting, this is not true.
Disney has said they will work to have this law, which many see as discriminatory and homophobic, repealed or struck down. Republicans said that Disney’s goal should be “to make a profit, provide job opportunities for hard-working Americans, and offer quality products and services to your customers – not cowering to a small political minority seeking to impose a fringe ideology on the rest of the country.”
Apparently, free speech and standing up for what is right and fair is a one-way street. The letter concludes by calling Disney’s stance “antagonistic.”
The Republican congressmen and congresswomen who signed this letter are Ralph Norman (South Carolina’s 5th Congressional District), Bob Good (Virginia’s 5th Congressional District), Doug Lamborn (Colorado’s 5th Congressional District), Mary E. Miller (Illinois’s 15th Congressional District), Matthew M. Rosendale (Montana), Andy Harris, M.D. (Maryland’s 1st Congressional District), Byron Donalds (Florida’s 19th Congressional District), Andrew S. Clyde (Georgia’s Ninth Congressional District), Andy Biggs (Arizona’s 5th Congressional District), Brian Babin, D.D.S. (Texas’s 36th Congressional District), Jeff Duncan (South Carolina’s 3rd Congressional District), and Madison Cawthorn (North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District).
