Disney Sues Ron DeSantis Over “Targeted Retaliation” Campaign

metroweekly.com:

internal and external protests by LGBTQ employees and their allies — to the “Don’t Say Gay” law. “State leaders have not been subtle about their reasons for government intervention,” the company writes in the lawsuit. “They have proudly declared that Disney deserves this fate because of what Disney said.

This is as clear a case of retaliation as this Court is ever likely to see.”DeSantis, a potential contender for the Republican nomination for president in 2024, has carved out an image as a defender of traditional values and opponent of “woke” ideology, often opposing displays of LGBTQ visibility in the name of “protecting children” from unhealthy or problematic influences.By opposing the law, which restricts discussions around sexual orientation and gender identity in schools, Disney became the perfect target for the populist DeSantis — a large corporation at odds with conservative values that the governor could rail against to appeal to the types of voters who comprise a large part of the Republican Party’s base.DeSantis has argued that the state’s actions around dissolving Reedy Creek and setting up the new board of supervisors were intended to remove special perks or benefits that Disney had received that were not afforded to other corporations.“We are unaware of any legal right that a company has to operate its own government or maintain special privileges not held by other businesses in the state,” Taryn Fenske, the governor’s communications director, told BBC News in a statement. “The lawsuit is yet another unfortunate example of their hope to undermine the will of the Florida voters and operate outside the bounds of the law.”But critics of the move note that the state only began taking action to end Reedy Creek’s.