Disney Boss Bob Chapek Says Company Won’t Slam Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill Directly, But Still Committed To Inclusion

deadline.com:

Facing rising outcry, Disney CEO Bob Chapek has decided to play a political and cultural version of a church mouse when it comes to Florida’s new ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill.With the openly discrimatory and controversial Parental Rights in Education legislation is scheduled for a vote today in the Sunshine State’s Senate, the boss of one of Florida’s largest employers is sitting on his hands, for now.“As we have seen time and again, corporate statements do very little to change outcomes or minds,” said the Disney exec in an email sent out to staff this morning. “Instead, they are often weaponized by one side or the other to further divide and inflame,” Chapek added. “Simply put, they can be counterproductive and undermine more effective ways to achieve change.”With hand on bureaucratic heart,  the man who used to run DisneyWorld and other theme parks for the company said “we are going to have a more fulsome conversation about this at the company-wide Reimagine Tomorrow Summit in April.” Timing that will likely have seen Florida Governor and potential 20124 POTUS candidate Ron DeSantis already having signed the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill into law.If that occurs, virtually all discussion or teaching about the LGBTQ+ community and “sexual orientation or gender identity” will be banned in the state’s public school system.

With almost 20 other states contemplating similar legislation, this latest lurch to the far-right has become a renewed strategic front in America’s culture wars — a battlefield Disney is declining to step on, for now.Chapek’s non-statement Monday comes after long-time critic Abagail Disney took the company to task “When laws are being passed that are this hateful and dripping with prejudice, there is no neutrality.