Sign up for The New Statesman’s newsletters Tick the boxes of the newsletters you would like to receive. On the other hand, we’ve seen bad faith actors and smear campaigns work and win before in American politics. The theme parks are family holiday destinations Disney is not a bastion of progressivism.
On the one hand, Disney is a powerful corporation and also the creator of beloved children’s works. So people are pushing legislation, and when it’s criticised for making life harder for LGBTQ people, they say that their critics are sympathetic to paedophiles? QAnon – you mean the conspiracy theory that said Donald Trump was fighting a secret war against paedophiles in government and the media? Hawley’s comment was widely seen as a wink and a nod to QAnon. This is, in fact, common practice in cases where the crime was viewing or distributing images, rather than creating. In further Republican dog whistle news, during Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearings for a place on the Supreme Court, some GOPers – notably the Missouri senator Josh Hawley, perhaps most famous for fist-pumping the angry mob that went on to storm the Capitol on 6 January 2021 and then voting not to certify the presidential election results – stressed that Jackson had sentenced offenders to less prison time than federal sentencing guidelines recommended in several cases. And Republican lawmakers in Ohio introduced a version of the law in their state.Īre Republicans also trying to imply that some people are friendly to paedophiles now? Dan Patrick, the lieutenant governor of Texas, has said he’d like to see similar legislation in Texas. But people are also just attacking the whole company.Īlmost certainly. Some are claiming that there’s a penis shown on an image of Minnie Mouse’s dress. One woman wrote an op-ed for Fox criticising Turning Red, a new Disney and Pixar film in which a young Chinese-Canadian girl turns into a red panda as a sort of metaphor for puberty.
Some people are focused on specific films or symbols. (Giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to legislators who crafted the legislation isn’t staying out of politics, but no matter.)Īre they attacking specific films or characters or just all of Disney?īoth. Rufo has implied that he would like Disney to learn a lesson about giving in to employee pressure and the importance of staying out of politics. Disney has said it will work to repeal the bill. Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, signed it into law on 28 March. (It’s also worth noting, maybe, that Disney has actually been accused by its own employees of censoring signs of same-sex affection in its Pixar movies.)Īfter pressure from the public – and employees – Disney’s CEO, Bob Chapek, then came out in opposition to the bill. The Walt Disney company put out a statement saying, “the biggest impact we can have in creating a more inclusive world is through the inspiring content we produce, the welcoming culture we create here, and the diverse community organisations we support, including those representing the LGBTQ+ community.” Promising inspiring content to people who felt their very identities were being attacked did not go over well. I’m getting there! It was revealed that Disney donated $200,000 to the Republicans behind the bill. But I still don’t see how Disney is involved? This legislation just pretends that the only sexual orientations and gender identities that are appropriate for young children to encounter are cis and heterosexual. If your child’s first-grade teacher references her boyfriend, she’s introducing them to sexual orientation.
The issue here is that if you give your five-year-old a book with a mother and a father you are, in fact, teaching them about sexual orientation and gender identity. I’m not sure I’d want my kindergarten student learning about sexual orientation.