Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hinted at the possibility of state lawmakers repealing Disney’s 1967 Reedy Creek Improvement Act after the company’s public opposition to the state’s ‘Parental Rights in Education’ law being dubbed the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law.
The Reedy Creek Improvement District has Disney act as its own government in both Orange and Osceola counties. The Act allows the company to zone the way they want to and build within their property without going through Orange and Osceola for approval.
DeSantis commented during a press conference in Ponte Vedra Beach Thursday that the possibility of repealing the act would not be in retaliation of the company’s opposition but rather strip Disney of its, ‘Special Privileges.’
“The way I view it is, you know, there are certain entities that have exerted a lot of influence through corporate means to generate special privileges in the law,” DeSantis said. “I don’t think we should have special privileges in the law at all.”
DeSantis’s comments were followed by a tweet from Florida House Rep. Spencer Roach commenting that he took part in the second meeting with state lawmakers discussing the repealing of the act.
The Parental Rights in Education Law, aka the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law, signed in on Monday, forbids classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation grades Kindergarten through third grade and prohibits instruction that is not age-appropriate for students, and requires school districts to adopt procedures for notifying parents if there is a change in services from the school regarding a child’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being according to FLgov.com.
