Here’s where things stand: As part of a broader conservative push to marginalize, penalize, and ultimately erase the LGBTQ+ community from American public life, Florida Republicans led by Gov. Ron DeSantis recently passed the atrocious “Don’t Say Gay” bill to criminalize elementary school education that recognizes that queer and transgender people exist. After initially funding a number of the GOP lawmakers behind the bill, the Walt Disney Company — under heavy pressure both within and outside of the organization — belatedly denounced the measure, prompting a deluge of QAnon-tinged allegations that the notoriously conservative media juggernaut is, somehow, a liberal front for “grooming” young children.
As if this weren’t crazy enough as it is, Florida has now punitively lashing out at one of its biggest economic powerhouses, with DeSantis on Friday signing a hastily passed bill that would strip the company of its Reedy Creek Improvement District — the nearly 40-square-mile plot of land upon which sits Walt Disney World resort, and in which Disney essentially is allowed to operate as a township unto itself, while footing its own bill. Within the district, building codes, basic municipal services like water and fire departments, roadwork, and the like are all handled by Disney internally, without the need to go through ordinary government bureaucracy.
