Ron “Don’t Say Gay” DeSantis is building his presidential campaign on the backbone of his feud with Disney.
Now, after months of silence, Disney CEO Bob Iger is firing back.
Speaking on CNBC, Iger defended his company against attacks from DeSantis, who’s been seeking retribution ever since Disney came out against Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which outlaws discussion of sexual orientation and gender ideology in all grade levels.
“The last thing that I want for the company is for the company to be drawn into any culture wars. It’s concerning to me that anyone would encourage a level of intolerance or even hate that frankly could even become dangerous action,” said Iger. “The notion that Disney is in any way sexualizing children, quite frankly, is preposterous and inaccurate.”
DeSantis is entangled in multiple legal battles with Mickey Mouse, the biggest private employer and tourism attraction in his state. Disney is suing the gay-hating governor for weaponizing his political power against the company.
To retaliate against former CEO Bob Chapek for publicly opposing “Don’t Say Gay,” DeSantis and Florida legislators stripped Disney of its special tax privileges.
Related:
While Disney’s old board struck a backdoor deal to retain autonomy, DeSantis nullified the agreement, leading to the current legal entanglement.
Florida’s state oversight board is also suing Disney. The company asked a state judge Friday to dismiss the case.
“Frankly, the company was within its right—even though I’m not sure it was handled very well—was within its right to speak up on an issue, constitutionally protected right of free speech,” said Iger. “To retaliate against the company in a way that would be harmful to the business was not something we could sit back and tolerate.”
Florida is already feeling those repercussions. Disney recently pulled the plug on a $1 billion development near Orlando, which would’ve brought 2,000 jobs to the region, with $120,000 as the average salary.
It’s apparent that DeSantis believed GOP voters would rally around his efforts to undercut Disney, but that hasn’t been the case. The flailing candidate is facing lagging poll numbers nationally and in his home state, where another Florida resident, Donald Trump, is beating him by 20 points.
DeSantis’ woes are so bad, they’re alienating supporters even more than his dreadful personality. That’s hard to do!
This week, it was reported the Republican party’s biggest kingmakers, the Murdochs, are out on “Meatball Ron.”
“They are transactional and can smell a loser a mile away,” a Murdoch source told Rolling Stone. (Rupert Murdoch and his family own Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post, among other right-leaning outlets.)
To stop the bleeding, DeSantis is doubling down on his attacks against LGBTQ+ people. His supporters released a super homophobic ad at the end of last month, and his wife, Casey, followed with one of her own.
By the way, Ron’s bizarre commercial is filled with homoerotic imagery. And he’s the one accusing Disney of sexualizing its content?
OK, then…
Related:
decrans
May I ask? How is this any different from AOC pulling the plug on 25,000 jobs with Amazon? Or Gavin Newsom using the authority of the state to punish Walgreens for complying with federal law for abortion pills? Or Gavin Newsom today, who threatened to fine school board parents for not including passages about Harvey Milk in their textbooks. (A grown man who engaged in a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old. Which again, that topic should be within the parents’ rights and not mandated by state force.) It’s messy all over America, girls.
dbmcvey
You shill for Ron DeSantis. You shill for this anti-gay, racist politician. Whatever you have to ask is a distraction and based on lies and right wing propaganda.
dbmcvey
If you had grown up gay you would understand why these parental notifications are dangerous. Parents are why so many LGBT kids are homeless and not able to get an education.
decrans
It still doesn’t answer the question of why you want someone engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a child taught to elementary kids. Just keep copying and pasting, Dave. I tune it out.
decrans
And it isn’t “right-wing propaganda.” It was documented by Harvey Milk’s biographer.
COTTONTOP
Please ignore the nazi troll. Attention is what it craves – don’t give it any.
storm45701
Didn’t Trump rape a 14-year old (allegedly). Remove him from the history books!
abfab
The POS raped thousands. Of age, and underage. Another true sociopath.
dbmcvey
Your comment was not worthy of comment in the first place, but your intentions are.
Did you see the story about how conservatives are trying to use recent Supreme Court decisions to outlaw gay marriage?
You want to know what you can do with your “concerns” you Republican shill?
decrans
Yeah, Donald Trump is rapey. So is Bill Clinton. He was on the Epstein flight logs as well.
decrans
Your comment is not worthy of a comment, but I’m gonna comment, anyway. Dave Matthews, you are a riot! And honestly, I never thought gay marriage should be legalized. As we’ve seen repeatedly over the last few years, gay marriage has led to a generation of children with various gender disorders. I’ve slowly realized that the social conservatives had a valid point. Hence my political evolution.
Bosch
“As we’ve seen repeatedly over the last few years, gay marriage has led to a generation of children with various gender disorders.”
How do you get so dumb in just one lifetime?
You know why the young generation is obsessed with trans issues? Because republicans decided to use trans people as a scapegoat, and talk about them non-stop. Like you. Like how you bring up trans people under every single article. The republicans made this monster.
decrans
Did they? What do you have to say to the mom on HBO’s Transhood, the one who forced her depressed kid to sign books about being trans against their will? Could it be youngish, libbed-out parents wanting to get on this red-hot trans trend? As Bill Maher said, “Why is there a proliferation of trans kids in California, but not in Ohio?’ And that quote was made before the trans legislation.
dbmcvey
decrans is at best a liar, at worst a kapo. He will be trying to heard us into the boxcars on the way to the camps.
decrans
I’d gladly put you, Bosch, and abs together in a box car. Gavin Newsom, too.
Den
“I’d gladly put you, Bosch, and abs together in a box car. Gavin Newsom, too.”
There you have it.
Not LGBT, certainly a fascist, probably a psychopath. Probably keeps Hitler’s collected speeches next to his bed as Trump was purported to. As a Jew, you and your kind disgust me.
AOC was aware that taxpayers in New York would be subsidizing Amazon’s activities in the city by surrendering $3 billion in would-be tax revenue, and there were enormous hidden costs associated with Amazon’s residence. She was doing what was best for her constituents as she usually does. NYC ended up getting an increase in 1400 jobs and an increase in city revenues. Amazon ended up cutting back its plans for all of its proposed centers. AMAZON pulled the plug based on cutting costs, not AOC. DeSantis, by contrast was acting out of stupidity and mean spiritedness, as all you folks seem to do.
Regarding Milk, in 1929 the age of consent was set at 16 in California. You as a mentally deficient straight man would likely be disgusted by ANY homosexual relations at all (your comments imply you are), and his relationship might be seen as inappropriate, but it is certainly legal, and by definition not pedophilia or even ephibophilia. And Milk’s contributions to social progress in the US need not expose “children” to his legal relationships. Worth mentioning though that your folks on the far right support middle aged men being able to marry 12 year old girls with “parental consent”, you twit.
decrans
Uh-huh. Riddle me this: Why is Scott Weiner (the same person sponsoring the legislation for Milk) extending the age of consent laws to 16 in California? Is this not a mixed message that we’re sending to children? And that’s my issue with the political movement of the LGBTQ community. As a whole, the community doesn’t care about other people’s children. As long as that messaging is pushed full-throttle! And the person in the relationship with Milk had mental issues. If a school board comprised of parents decides that this material shouldn’t be included and they vote on it, that’s within their right. It’s called democracy in action.
decrans
And also: Fifty-eight percent of her constituents in a Sienna Poll disagree with your assertion that AOC was “doing what’s best for the constituents.” Only 33 percent backed AOC on the deal.
decrans
You’ll also be happy to know that I disagree with the ‘far-right” as you say. Of which, I’m not. I’m an independent voter. Probably voting for Cornel West or Joe Manchin. And as I told Dave Matthews, if y’all seriously believe the impending rise in Nazism, why aren’t you leaving the country? Yet again, this is another smoke screen by the left, one which has occurred with George W. Bush, John McCain, and Mitt Romney. If you think it’s a real threat, why are you staying? It doesn’t make sense. To me, that is performance art. You’re doing performance art in the comment section.
Fahd
In any feud with Disney, my money is on the mouse.
abfab
Yes, and on Donald Duck and Snow White and the 7 dwarfs, Bambi and Dumbo. This man is in way over his head. He (Casey’s bitch boy) will fail and he will then
move on to Fox And Friends. Don’t you just love the name of that show!
Disney will win….place your bets!
still_onthemark
Hey did anyone see the Washington Post story about DeSantis canvassers such as our friend decrans?
Door-knocker complaints show risks of DeSantis super PAC strategy
The Florida governor’s presidential campaign is relying on paid canvassers rather than volunteers
With his foot on a front porch of a stately home in Charleston, S.C., a canvasser for a $100 million field effort supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) vented on July 7 about a homeowner who he said had told him to get off his lawn.
Speaking on his phone while wearing a T-shirt with “DESANTIS” in big letters and a lanyard representing the Never Back Down super PAC, he used lewd remarks to describe what he would tell the homeowner to do to him. “And I’m a little stoned, so I don’t even care,” he added, holding materials and appearing to wait for another homeowner to come to the door.
The outburst — seen on a Ring doorbell video recording that was shared with The Washington Post — led to the canvasser’s dismissal this week, according to an official from Never Back Down. It highlighted a potential risk of the unprecedented effort by DeSantis donors to flood early primary states with thousands of paid door knockers armed with high-tech tools to win support one conversation at a time.
decrans
I’m usually stoned no matter the political affiliation. When the socialists were paying me for Katie Hobbs, I was definitely blazed to the gills. I tried to get people to vote for Kari Lake on the sly.
abfab
The FBI finally tracked down the Gllgo Beach serial killer fater 12 years. Imagine living next door to this creep in Massapequa Park, or next door to this decrantis creep? Truely a sick individual.
dbmcvey
Yeah, I’m sure decraps has to be stoned to silence whatever conscience he has left.
decrans
Defintely. I felt my conscience ripping in half getting a paycheck for Katie Hobbs. God, that was awful. But again, that’s capitalist America. People make concessions for money on a daily basis. That’s how our country runs.
decrans
And lastly, is abs capable of a coherent sentence? There’s an app for you, abs. It’s called Truth Social. Your fifth-grade reading level will go over like gangbusters on that Website.
Bosch
Decrans, you are in no position to be making fun of people’s intelligence. Do I need to get your word-salad definition of “spectrum”? Do I need to ask again why you don’t know the difference between sex, gender, and gender identity, even though you’ve had “transgender doctors”? Should we go and measure some things by their z-score?
Dumbass.
decrans
Bosch, you mad the American Psychology Association used gender markers? Clearly, you are one of those holier-than-thou liberal idiots who doesn’t even know what’s going down at actual trans clinics. But keep telling those conservative idiots all about these newfangled words you don’t even have a goddamned clue about. You’re so smart, Bosch.
decrans
And again, sex, gender, blah, blah, blah. What’s the 203rd gender identity being invented on TikTok today? You wanna know why there’s a pushback from normal Americans? All these words being forced and changing every goddamned week. The APA used the term gender markers. It’s on their Website, Bosch! You can’t even keep up with the terminology being used yourself. Most Americans are refusing to adopt your invented, made-up terms. Suck on it and cry your liberal tears like a snivelling bit-h, Bosch.
dbmcvey
decrans will be the one hearding lgbt people onto boxcars to go to the camps. Assuming he’s not a liar he is a traitor.
Den
“decrans will be the one hearding lgbt people onto boxcars to go to the camps. Assuming he’s not a liar he is a traitor.”
He has invested a great deal of effort in demonstrating he is both.
Openminded
I’m hoping this only gets worse for DeSantis. Numbers just out show that both Disney AND Universal are seeing some slow times in what is typically high season. July 4th was reportedly the 3rd slowest day at Hollywood Studios out of the past 12 months! When this lack of tourism trickles down to working class in Florida, they will start rethinking their vote for this Jack@ss. There is no denying DeSantis’ actions are costing Florida’s tourist industry biggly.
johncp56
I know he and his Keran wife will not get far, but it is shameful how they twist this and think freedom of speech is what they are yelling at us, thank you Disney for one.
abfab
More proof he’s a facsist.
Turmoil in Florida’s New State Guard, as Some Recruits Quit NYT
Some who volunteered for the force commissioned by Gov. Ron DeSantis said the group, billed as a natural disaster relief organization, had become too militarized.
Vera Delmar
decrans You can teach about Harvey Milk without having to teach about what he did with 16-year olds. Just do what the Conservative Right does when writing history about their favorite and famous politicians….you white-wash, Dahlin!
decrans
Well, it should be up to the parents and school board to make that decision. We live in a democratic society, yes? When Gavin Newsom supersedes the will of the parental school board, how is that any different from Ron DeSantis in Florida?
Openminded
@Vera, I very seldom agree with Decrans, but I somewhat do on this one. There is little difference in what Newsom and DeSantis is doing politically. I also agree with your statement that we should be able to teach about Milk’s good attributes without including his darker side. However, we continue to take down historic statues of war soldiers and famous football coaches who accomplished great things while also having a dark side to their history. Why do some get to cherry pick who gets historical recognition for only their good deeds, while others are judged by both their good and bad deeds, typically ending up cancelled?
wooly101
With Disney’s current string of flops you would think the CEO would have other things to worry about. Iger should stay out of politics.
Openminded
Chapek is the CEO who waded into the political discussion, and too late I might add. Iger came back in as CEO to clean up this and other bigger mistakes Chapek made. Chapek made his belated statement in regards to the Don’t Say Gay bill due to increasing pressures from Disney’s LGBTQ employee demands for support. Chapek’s comment was not out of line at all, it just proved how ballistic DeSantis can be. I’m a fiscal conservative but I believe if we business owners want the government out of our business, we should likewise keep our business out of government. That said, it doesn’t work that way and I’m glad that Disney came out on the side of the LGBTQ community, even if it did all go sideways.
SparkyMICH
Sounds like Iger is looking for a distraction against the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.
Openminded
Nah. Disney+ can’t sell enough of the content they have in stock now to be profitable. This will help curtail the $8 Billion loss Disney+ took while developing new content during Chapek’s last year at the helm.
Matthewnow
Who?