After ‘Don’t Say Gay,’ a Weakened Disney Hopes to Limit the Damage
variety.comDisney’s self-governing district. Two weeks earlier, Gov. Ron DeSantis had abolished the district in retaliation for Disney’s opposition to a law that restricts classroom instruction on LGBTQ identity – known to critics as “Don’t Say Gay.” The two officials – one of them the chief deputy counsel in DeSantis’ office — went to figure out what the state was getting into.
The leaders of the Reedy Creek Improvement District showed them a PowerPoint detailing their responsibilities for a 54-megawatt power plant, 65 miles of canals, various roads and pedestrian bridges, and a fire department that handles 35,000 calls a year, largely for heat-related illness, at the Disney theme parks.
With a stroke of a pen, DeSantis eliminated all of that without any roadmap for what would come next. The two state officials had not had time to come up with a plan, so they had nothing of their own to present.
But one was already starting to take shape that would allow Disney to sustain its operations in Orlando while also cementing a political win for the governor.
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